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THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION
OF THE BLESSED MARTYRS OF
CHRIST, MARCELLINUS
AND PETER
LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD
Oxford University Press
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THE HISTORY OF
The Translation of The
Blessed Martyrs of Christ
Marcellinus and Peter
THE ENGLISH VERSION
BY BARRETT WENDELL
CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS : MCMXXVI
ace
e -3.B
COPYRIGHT, 1926
BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF
HARVARD COLLEGE
FIVE HUNDRED COPIES
PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.
TYPE ARRANGED BY BRUCE ROGERS
WHEN, in the course of preparing my
book on the Traditions of European Lit-
erature, I turned to Eginhard's Life of
Charlemagne, I chanced, in the Teulet
edition of his works (1840-43), on this History of the
Translation of Saints Marcellinus and Peter. So far as
I am aware, the only familiar reference to it in English
is in an ess.ay by Huxley, touching on its therapeutic
aspect. To me it seemed interesting also for its vivid
glimpses of life in the Ninth Century. And Teulet's
clear translation came so far from reproducing the
effect of Eginhard's style, — pure in vocabulary, but
very crude in syntax, yet rhythmic, — that I amused
myself by attempting this English translation from
the Latin. Were I familiar with Latin, and particularly
with the text of the Vulgate Bible, I might have done
it much better; for I rather think that he often uses
phrases taken straight from his reading. If so, at least
when we come to Scripture, the words of the standard
English translation would be fittest.
As to Eginhard, Teulet's introduction and notes
tell all that need be known, and indeed about all that
is known. A Frankish gentleman, about thirty years
old in 800, he was educated at the court of Charle-
magne, and held high office in the Emperor's last years
and under his son Louis. There is no authority for the
legend that Eginhard's wife, Emma, was Charlemagne's
daughter. In Eginhard's later years, he became an ec-
clesiastic; and this account of how things then went
with him was written when he was somewhere about
sixty years old.
BARRETT WENDELL
BOSTON ATHENAEUM,
4 December, 1920
THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION
OF THE BLESSED MARTYRS OF
CHRIST, MARCELLINUS
AND PETER
THE HISTORY OF
The Translation of The
Blessed Martyrs of Christ
Marcellinus and Peter.
Deface,
TO true worshippers of the true God, and to
unfeigned lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ and
of His Saints, Eginhard a sinner. Those who
have committed to letters and to memory the
lives and deeds of the just, and of men who obey divine
commands, seem to me to have wished little else than
by such examples to encourage others to correct bad
habits and to join in praising the omnipotence of God.
And they have done this not only because they were
free from malice but because they abounded in charity,
which desires the good of all. Now since their worthy
purpose is so very clearly only to bring about the ends
which I have mentioned, I see no reason why they
should not be imitated by many. And since I am sure
that the pages which I have written, as well as I could,
about the translation of the bodies of those blessed
martyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, and about
the signs and wonders which God has willed to be
wrought through them for the health of believers, were
composed with the same wish and purpose, I have de-
cided to revise them and to offer them to such readers
as love God. For I not only think that this work
should not seem empty and purposeless to any
of the faithful, but I also venture to be-
lieve that I have worked fruitfully and
usefully, if I shall have succeeded
in stirring any reader to the
praise of his Creator.
V^-^apfer 1.
I
MESSENGERS SENT BY EGINHARD TO ROME
TO PROCURE RELICS OBTAIN THOSE OF
SAINTS MARCELLINUS AND PETER. «i
WHEN, still at court and busy with secular
matters, I used often to think in all man-
ner of ways about the repose which I hoped
some time to enjoy, I came across a little-
known place, far removed from the vulgar crowd; and
by the generosity of Louis, the prince whom I then
served, I became possessed of it. This place is in the
German forest which lies midway between the rivers
Neckar and Main, and in our times is called Odenwald
by the inhabitants and their neighbours. When, ac-
cording to my powers and means, I had built there not
only houses and other places of permanent habitation
but also a church of no unsuitable design for the cele-
bration of divine service, I began to wonder in the name
and honour of what saint or martyr it had best be dedi-
cated. And when a great deal of time had passed in this
wavering of mind, it happened that a certain deacon of
the Roman Church, by name Deusdona, who desired to
request the help of the king in some needs of his own,
came to court. When, after he had stayed there for
some time and the business on which he had come was
settled, he was arranging to return to Rome, he was
invited by us one day, as a matter of politeness, to come,
as a visitor, to our frugal dinner; and there, while talk-
ing a good deal at table, we chanced in conversation to
reach a point where mention was made of the transla-
tion of the Blessed Sebastian, and of the neglected
tombs of the martyrs of which there is a great abund-
ance at Rome. Then, the talk turning on the dedication
of our new church, I began to ask him by what means I
could bring it about that some bit of the true relics of
the saints, who lie at rest in Rome, could be obtained
by me. Here he at first hesitated a little, and answered
that he did not know how this could be managed. Then,
when he perceived that I was eager and anxious about
this matter, he promised that he would answer my
question some other day.
Afterwards, when he was invited by me again, he
presently took from the folds of his garment a written
note, requesting that I should read it when alone, and
that I would be so good as to tell him how I liked what
was there set down. I took the note, and as he desired
read it alone and without mentioning it. The contents
were as follows: he had "at home a great many relics of
saints, and he was willing to give them to me, if helped
by what I might do for him he could get back to Rome;
he understood that I had two mules — if I would give
him one of these, and send with him a trusty man of my
own, who could receive the relics from him and bring
them back to me, he would send them to me at once.
The general temper of his request pleased me, and I
made up my mind to test the value of his indefinite
6
promise without delay; so, having given him the animal
he asked for, and added money for his journey, I or-
dered my notary, by name Ratleig, who had himself
made a vow to visit Rome for purposes of prayer, to go
with him. So setting out from Aix-la-Chapelle — for at
that time the Emperor was there with his court — they
came to Soissons; and there they had some talk with
Hildoin, the abbot of the monastery of Saint-Medard,
for the deacon aforesaid had promised him that he
would so arrange things that the body of the blessed
martyr Tiburtius should come into his possession.
Charmed by these promises, the abbot sent with them
a certain priest, a crafty man by name Lehun, with or-
ders to bring him the body of the aforesaid martyr
when received from the deacon. The journey thus be-
gun, they made their way toward Rome as fast as they
could.
Now it happened, after they had reached Italy, that
the servant of my notary, by name Reginbald, seized
with a tertian fever, made, by reason of his repeated at-
tacks, no small delay in their journey; because at the
times when he fell into the heats of fever they could not
travel. For they were few, and therefore indisposed to
separate from one another. And at a time when their
progress had been no little impeded by this inconven-
ience, and they were hastening it as much as they could,
three days before they came to the city, there appeared
in a vision to him who was sick of a fever a certain man
in the dress of a deacon, asking him why his master was
hurrying to Rome. And when he told him all he knew
7
about both the promises of the deacon to send me relics
of the saints and those which he had promised the Ab-
bot Hildoin, "This will not come to pass," he said;
"but far otherwise than you now suppose, the purpose
for which you come shall be fulfilled. For that deacon
who has asked you to come to Rome will do little or
nothing of what he has promised you; and therefore I
wish you to follow me and carefully to treasure in your
mind those things which I shall show and tell you."
Then taking him, as it seemed to him, by the hand,
he made him climb with him to the summit of an ex-
ceeding high mountain. And when they stood there to-
gether: "Turn," he said, "to the east, and observe the
country laid open to your eyes." When he did so, and
observed the country of which these words were spoken
to him, he saw there structures of vast size, built close
together after the manner of some great city, and asked
by his companion if he knew what it was he replied
that he did not know. Then his companion said: "It is
Rome that you see." And he presently added: "Turn
your eyes to the midst of the city, and see if any church
appears to you in that region." And when he said that
he saw a certain church clearly, "Go," said his com-
panion, " and tell Ratleig, for in the church which you
have just seen that thing lies hidden which he shall
bring to his master: and so let him set to work that he
shall lay hand on it as soon as can be brought about,
and go back to his master." And when he said that
none of those who had come with him would put any
faith in what he said about such things as these, his
8
companion answered and said: "You know that all who
travel with you are troubled because for a great many
days you have suffered from a tertian fever, and have
not yet had any abating of it." And he said: "It is as
you say." "Therefore," said his companion, "I wish
that this shall be a sign unto thee, and to those to
whom you shall tell the words I have spoken to you, for
from this hour you shall be so cured, by the loving
kindness of God, from the fever by which until now you
have been detained, that it shall not touch you at all in
the rest of this journey." Awakened by these words, he
made haste to report to Ratleig everything which he
had seemed to see and to hear. When Ratleig told these
things to the priest who travelled with him, it seemed
to them both that the test of the dream would be
whether the promise of health came true; for on that
very day, according to the nature of the disease from
which he had been suffering, a fever should have at-
tacked him who had seen the vision. And that it was
not a vain fancy but rather a true revelation was clear,
for neither on that day nor on any of those which fol-
lowed it did he feel in his body any trace of the fevers
to which he had been used. And so it came to pass both
that they believed in the vision, and had no more faith
in the promises of Deusdona, the deacon.
So coming to Rome, they took up their abode near
the church of the Blessed Apostle Peter, which is called
Ad Vincula, in the house of the deacon with whom they
had come; and they remained with him some days,
awaiting the fulfilment of his promises. But he, who
was quite unable to make good his agreements, ex-
cused himself for not doing so by various pretexts of
delay. At last, having speech with him, they asked why
he chose to trifle with them so; requesting at the same
time that he no longer delay them with disappoint-
ments and prevent their return by vain hopes. When he
had heard them, and perceived that he could no longer
impose on them with trickery of this kind, he first in-
formed my notary concerning the relics promised to me
that he could not have them, for the reason that his
brother, to whom on leaving Rome he had entrusted
both his house and all he possessed, was gone on busi-
ness to Beneventum, and that he had no sort of idea
when he would return, and that since he had given him
for safe-keeping those relics, together with other por-
table property, he could not tell what he had done with
them, for he could not find them anywhere in the house;
so it was my notary's part to see what could be done,
for there was nothing more to hope from him. After he
had said this to my notary, who complained at being
deceived and tricked by him, he talked in I know not
what empty and trifling terms with the priest of Hil-
doin, who had cherished the same hopes, and so got rid
of him. But next day, when he saw them in very low
spirits, he urged them to come with him to the burial
places of the saints; for it seemed to him that they
might find there some such thing as should satisfy their
desires, and that there was no need of their going home
empty-handed. But when this proposal pleased them,
and they wished to set about what he had urged them
10
to do as soon as they could, he put off the business, in
his habitual way, and by this delay threw their minds,
which for a little while had been revived, into such
despair that, giving him up altogether, they decided,
although their business was quite unaccomplished, to
return home.
But my notary, remembering the dream which his
servant had had, began to urge his companion that,
without their host, they should go to the burial places
which he had promised that he would take them to see.
So having found a guide who regularly conducted trav-
ellers to these holy places they first came to the church
of the Blessed Martyr Tiburtius, on the Via Labicana,
three miles away from the city, and examined the tomb
of the martyr as carefully as they possibly could; and
discussed with the greatest privacy the question of
whether it could be so opened that nobody else should
notice the fact. Then they went down into a crypt near
this church, in which the bodies of the Blessed Martyrs
of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, were buried; and
having examined the nature of this monument also,
they went home, thinking that they could keep secret
from their host what they had been about. But it fell
out otherwise than they expected. For, although they
knew not by what means, knowledge of what they had
done came to him with little delay; and fearing lest
they should accomplish their desires without him he
made up his mind to make haste to anticipate their
purpose. And since he had full and complete know-
ledge of those holy places, he politely addressed himself
ii
to them, and urged that they should all go there to-
gether; and if God should deign to favor their wishes,
they would take counsel with one another concerning
what it might seem best to do.
They agreed to his plan, and by common consent
fixed on a time for beginning it. Then, after fasting for
three days, they went by night, unremarked by any in-
habitant of Rome, to the place I have mentioned; and
having got into the church of Saint Tiburtius, they first
attempted to open the altar under which his holy body
was believed to lie. But the beginning of their intended
work was little to their liking; for the monument, built
of very hard marble, easily resisted the inexpert hands
of those who were trying to open it. So leaving the
burial place of that martyr, they went down to the
tomb of the Blessed Marcellinus and Peter; and there
having invoked our Lord Jesus Christ, and having
prayed to the holy Martyrs, they managed to lift from
its place the stone with which the top of the tomb was
covered. When they had taken this off, they saw the
mostholybody of Saint Marcellinus, placed in the upper
part of that tomb, and close to his head a marble tablet,
which by an inscription which it contained gave them
clear proof of what martyr's limbs lay in that place. So,
as was meet, they lifted up the body with the greatest
reverence, and having wrapped it in clean fine linen
they handed it to the deacon, to carry and to keep for
them. And having replaced the stone, lest some trace
that the body had been taken away should remain,
they went back to their abode in the city. But the dea-
12
con, declaring that in the house where he dwelt, near
. the church of the Blessed Apostle Peter which is called
Ad Vincula, he would and could keep safe the body of
the most blessed Martyr which he had taken in charge,
gave it into the keeping of a brother of his, by name
Luniso; and thinking that this would satisfy my notary
he began to urge him that having obtained the body of
the blessed Marcellinus he should return to his own
country.
But he was thinking and turning over in his mind a
far different thing. For, as he afterwards told me, it
seemed to him by no means admissible that he should
go home with the body of the blessed Marcellinus
alone; it would be a great shame if the body of the
blessed martyr Peter, who had been his fellow in suf-
fering, and through five hundred years and more had
lain with him in the same sepulchre, should be left
there when he was going from thence. And having con-
ceived this idea in his mind, he was so vexed by its
growth and restlessness within him that neither food
nor falling asleep could seem to him sweet and pleasant
unless the bodies of the martyrs, even as they had been
joined together in suffering and in the tomb, could be
joined also in the journey on which he was about to set
forth. But in what manner this could be brought about,
he was very doubtful; for he knew that he could find no
Roman who would give him any help to this end, nor
even any to whom he would dare expose the secret pur-
poses of his mind. Laboring under this heaviness of
heart, he chanced to meet a certain foreign monk, by
13
name Basil, who two years before had come from Con-
stantinople to Rome, and there on the Palatine hill
abode, with four disciples, in the house of other Greeks,
who were of the same persuasion as he. He went to him
and laid open the trouble from which he was suffering.
Then fortified by his advice and trusting in his prayers
he found his heart so strengthened that he determined
that, even though at the risk of his head, the thing
should be attempted as soon as he could. And sending
for his companion, the priest of Hildoin, he began by
proposing to him that they should go again in secret,
as they had done before, to the church of the Blessed
Tiburtius, and endeavor once more to open the tomb
in which the body of the Martyr was believed to be
buried.
The proposal was welcome; and taking along the
servants whom they had brought with them, they set
out secretly at night, their host having no sort of notion
of where they were going. And when they had come to
the church, and made vows before the doors of it for the
success of their purpose, they went inside; then, divid-
ing the company, the priest remained with some of the
them to hunt for the body of the blessed Tiburtius in
the church bearing his name; and Ratleig with others
went down to the body of the blessed Peter, in the
crypt close to the church; and having opened the tomb
without any difficulty, he took out the sacred limbs of
the holy Martyr, with no opposition, and put them,
once in his possession, into a silken bag, which he had
made ready for them. Meanwhile, the priest who was
searching for the body of the blessed Tiburtius, having
spent much time in useless work, and seeing that he
could get no further, gave up his efforts, and came down
to Ratleig in the crypt, and began to ask him what was
to be done. When he answered that he thought that the
relics of Saint Tiburtius were found, and explained
what he meant, — for a little before the said priest had
come to him in the crypt, he had found, in the same
tomb in which the bodies of Saints Marcellinus and
Peter lay, a certain hole, round in form, dug to the
depth of three good feet, and a full foot wide, and
placed in it was no small quantity of very fine dust, —
it seemed to them both that this dust could have been
left from the body of the blessed Tiburtius if his bones
had been taken from thence: and, in order that it
should be harder to find, it might have been placed just
between the blessed Marcellinus and Peter, in the same
tomb : and it was agreed between them that the priest
should take it and carry it away with him as the relics
of the blessed Tiburtius.
Having thus considered and decided these matters,
they went back to their lodgings with the things which
they had found. After this, Ratleig, in talk with his
host, requested that he give him back the holy ashes of
the blessed Marcellinus which he had entrusted to him
to be kept safe, and that he would detain him, now
wishing to return to his own country, with no needless
delay. And he not only restored at once what was asked
for, but also offered no small quantity of relics of saints,
tied up in a bundle, to be carried to me; and asked
IS
what their names were he answered that he would tell
me himself when he should come to see me. He recom-
mended, however, that these relics should be treated
with the same respect shown to those of other holy
Martyrs, for the reason that they had acquired as
much merit in the sight of God as the blessed
Marcellinus and Peter: and that I should
believe this as soon as knowledge of
their names came to me. Ratleig
took theofferedgift, and, as he
was advised, put it with
the bodies of the
holy Martyrs.
tpfet? 2.
THE HOLY RELICS ARE CARRIED THROUGH
DIVERS PLACES TO MICHILINSTADT, AND
AFTER SUNDRY VISIONS TO MULINHEIM,
LATER CALLED SELIGENSTADT. &&Q&SS&&&
HAVING taken counsel with his host, he ar-
ranged that the holy and much-desired
treasure, placed and sealed up in caskets,
should be taken as far as Pavia by the host's
brother Luniso, of whom we have made mention above,
and also by the priest of Hildoin, who had come with
him. As for himself, he remained with his host at Rome,
watching and listening for seven successive days, to see
whether anything about the removal of the bodies of
the saints should come to the knowledge of the citizens.
And when he saw that no mention of this fact was made
by any stranger, and concluded the matter safe, he set
out after those whom he had sent ahead, taking his host
along with him. And when they found them tarrying
for them at Ticino, in the church of the Blessed John
the Baptist, which is commonly called Domnanae, and
at that time through the generosity of my king was in
my possession, they decided that they too would stop
there for some days, both to refresh the beasts on
which they had travelled and to prepare themselves for
a longer journey.
At this time of their tarrying, a rumor arose that am-
bassadors of the holy Roman Church, sent by the Pope
to the Emperor, would soon arrive there. So, fearing
that, if found there on their coming, something incon-
venient to themselves, or even an obstacle, might occur,
they decided that some of them should hurry to get
away before the embassy arrived; that the rest should
stay there, and that after the matter concerning which
they were anxious had been carefully examined, and
the embassy had proceeded on its way, they should
make haste to follow their friends, whom they had sent
on ahead. So when they had thus settled things among
themselves, Deusdona with the priest of Hildoin left
before the ambassadors from Rome arrived, and made
what haste they could for Soissons, where Hildoin was
thought to be; but Ratleig, with the true treasure
which he had with him, remained at Pavia, waiting un-
til the ambassadors of the Apostolic See should pass by,
so that when they had crossed the Alps he might make
his own journey more safely. But fearing lest the priest
of Hildoin, who had gone on with Deusdona, and who
had full and complete knowledge of all that had been
done and arranged between them, and who seemed
tricky and slippery, might undertake to put some ob-
stacle in the road by which he had planned to travel, he
made up his mind that he had best go another way; so,
after sending on to me the servant of our steward As-
colf with letters in which he informed me both of his
own return and that he was bringing the treasure which
divine aid had discovered, he himself, after by reckon-
18
ing the stopping places made ready for the Romans he
thought they must have passed the Alps, left Pavia and
in six days came to Saint Maurice. And there, having
procured what seemed needful, he placed those holy
bodies, enclosed in a casket, on a bier; and going on from
thence he began to carry them publicly and openly,
with the help of the people who flocked to meet him.
When he had passed the place which is called the
Head of the Lake he found a fork in the road by which
the ways leading to France are divided in two; and tak-
ing the path to the right he came, through the territory
of the Germans, to Soleure, a town of the Burgundians.
There he met those whom, after the news of his coming
had reached me, I had ordered to go from Maestricht to
his assistance. For at the time when the letters of my
notary were brought me by that servant of the steward
of whom we have mademention above, I was at the mon-
astery of Saint Bavon, on the river Scheldt. Informed
by the reading of these letters of the coming of the
Saints, I ordered one of our household to go from thence
to Maestricht, and there to collect a company of priests
and other clergy, as well as of laymen, and to hurry to
meet the approaching saints wherever he first could.
And he, making no delay, together with those whom he
took with him, in a few days met, at the place which I
have named, those who were bearing on the saints : and
joining together, accompanied then and increasingly
thereafter by hymning troops of people, they soon
came, with general rejoicing, to the city of Argentora-
tum, which is now called Strasbourg. Thence sailing
19
down the Rhine, when they came to a place which is
called Portus (the Harbour) they disembarked on the
east bank of the river, and after five days journey, with
a very great multitude of men rejoicing in the praises of
God, they came to the place called Michilinstadt. That
place is in that German forest which in present times is
called Odenwald, and is about six leagues distant from
the river Main. When they found there the church
newly built by me, but not yet dedicated, they bore the
holy ashes into it, and there set them down, as if they
were always to stay there.
When this news was brought me, I made haste to go
thither as fast as I could. There, three days after our ar-
rival being completed, when at the end of the vespers
service a certain servant of Ratleig, by his orders, re-
mained alone in the church, everybody else having de-
parted, and with closed doors sat close to those holy
bodies in the chancel, to keep watch over them as it
were, he was of a sudden overcome by sleep, and sleep-
ing he saw as it were two doves come flying through the
right window of the apse, and light on the top of the
bier above those bodies of the Saints: one of them ap-
peared all white, the other dappled with the colours
white and gray. And when they had walked up and
down on the top of the bier for a good while, and had
uttered again and again the sighs customary to doves,
as if talking together, they passed out through the
same window, and were seen no more. And immediately
thereafter a voice was heard above the servant's head:
"Go," it said, "and tell Ratleig to inform his master
20
that those holy Martyrs are unwilling that their bodies
shall rest in this place: for they have chosen another to
which they desire to be taken at once." To him the ut-
terer of this voice was not visible; but when the sound
ceased he awoke, and aroused from sleep he told Rat-
leig, when he came back to the church, what he had
seen. And Ratleig next day, as soon as he could come to
me, was at pains to report to me what his servant had
told him. Now I, although I dared not disdain the mys-
tery of this vision, nevertheless determined that it must
be confirmed in some more definite manner; and mean-
time! had those holy ashes taken from the linen pack-
ages bound with cords in which they had travelled, and
sewn up in new cushions made of silk. And when, on
looking at them, I perceived the relics of the blessed
Marcellinus to be smaller in quantity than those of the
holy Peter, I thought that he had been smaller in stat-
ure and dimensions of body than the holy Peter. But
that this was not the case, a theft later discovered made
plain; where, and when, and by whom, and how this was
accomplished and discovered I will tell in the proper
place: now the course of the story I am telling must be
held without interruption.
Now after I had examined that great and marvellous
treasure, more precious than all gold, the casket in
which it was contained began exceedingly to displease
me, by reason of the baseness of the material of which it
was made. Desiring to amend this, I directed one of the
vergers, one day when the vespers service was at an
end, to bring me the dimensions of the casket measured
21
by a rod. When to do this he lighted a candle, and lifted
up the hanging clothes with which the casket was cov-
ered, he observed the casket after a wondrous fashion
to be exuding a fluid of the colour of blood; and, greatly
alarmed by the strangeness of the fact, he took instant
measures to inform me of what he had seen. Then I
went thither, with the priests who had gathered near
by, and saw for myself that astonishing miracle, which
set us all to wondering. For as columns and slabs or
images of marble are wont, when rain is at hand, to
sweat and drip, so that casket, which contained the
most holy bodies, was found to be wet with fresh blood
and sprinkled with it everywhere. The unusual and
indeed unheard-of nature of the miracle alarmed us.
Wherefore, after taking counsel, we decided to pass
three days in fasting and prayer, so that we might be
worthy to know by divine revelation what that great
and unspeakable prodigy meant, and what it bade us
do. And it fell out that when the three days' fast was
completed, and evening was already growing late, that
moisture as of dreadful blood began of a sudden to dry
up; and after a wondrous fashion that which had oozed
forth for seven successive days as if it were to last and
be incessant became in a very few hours so completely
dry that when still in the night-time — /or it was Sun-
day — the bell summoned us to the service which was
celebrated before dawn and we went into the church,
no trace of it could be found on the casket. But the
linen cloths which hung about the casket, and had been
so besprinkled with the fluid that they were stained
22
with spots like blood-stains, I ordered to be preserved:
and on them appears to this day much evidence of that
great, unheard-of prodigy. For it is established that the
fluid was of a brackish savour, as it were like the taste
of tears, and of a thinness like that of water, but had
the colour of true blood.
In the quiet of that same night, two youths were
seen standing beside him by one of our servants, by
name Roland, and, as he himself bore witness, they
bade him tell me many things concerning the need of
translating the bodies of the Saints : and they showed
him whither and how this ought to be done: and, with
terrifying threats they commanded that this should be
told me without delay. And as soon as he could have
access to me, he took care to tell me the things that he
had been bidden to tell. When I had heard them,: I be-
gan to fret myself with great anxiety, and to turn over
in my- mind what I ought to do : whether fasting and
prayer should again be observed, and God once more
appealed to for the settlement of our questions; or
whether some devout and faultless servant of God
should be sought for, to whom we could make plain the
trouble of our heart and the plaints of our perplexities,
and of whom we might request that by his prayers he
should bring to pass a clear direction to us from God
concerning this matter. But where and when could such
a fellow of Christ's household be found by us, particu-
larly in those parts? For although certain monasteries
had been established not far from the place where we
were, nevertheless, by reason of the rude manners
23
thereabouts prevalent, there were few men or none of
whom anything of the kind or even the slightest rumor
of it was reported. ; Meantime, while thus troubled I
was praying for the assistance of the holy Martyrs, and
eagerly requesting all who were there with us to do the
same, it happened that for several days no night passed
in which it was not revealed in dreams to one, or two, or
even three of our companions that those bodies of the
Saints must be translated from that place to another.
And at last, as he himself avers, there appeared in a
vision to a certain priest of those who were there with
us, by name Hildfrid, a certain man in priestly gar-
ment, remarkable for the venerable whiteness of his
hair, and clothed in white, who accosted him with
words like these: "Why," he said, "is Eginhard so
hard of heart and so obstinate that he will not put faith
in so many revelations, and thinks that so many coun-
sels divinely sent him may be despised ? Go and tell him
that what the blessed Martyrs desire to be done with
their bodies cannot remain undone. And as until this
moment he has delayed satisfying their wish in this
matter, let him now, if he does not wish the merit of the
deed to pass to somebody else, make haste to obey their
command; and not neglect to carry their bodies to the
place which they have chosen."
After these warnings and others of divers kinds had
been conveyed to me, it seemed to me that the new
translation of the holy ashes must not longer be de-
layed; and so, having taken counsel, we decided that
we would hasten to accomplish the thing as fast as it
24
could be done. So, at dawn one day, after the morning
service was finished, after making ready, quickly but
with the greatest pains, everything which seemed need-
ful for this convoy, we took up that holy and priceless
treasure, amid very great grief and lamentation from
those who were to remain in that place, and starting on
our way to carry it, accompanied by a multitude of the
poor who in those days had flocked thither from all
sides for the purpose of receiving alms; for the people
who lived thereabout knew nothing about our plans
and purposes. The sky was heavy with foul clouds,
which must soon be melted into very heavy rain, un-
less divine care should forbid; for all night long it had
uninterruptedly rained so hard that it had seemed
hardly possible to begin our journey next day. But that
doubt of ours, which came from weakness of faith, the
Grace which is on High resolved through the merits of
His saints far otherwise than we expected: for we per-
ceived that the way by which we travelled had been
changed to another condition than we had looked for:
we both found little mud and discovered that the
streams, which in so heavy and continuous a rain as
there had been that night are apt to rise, were hardly
swollen at all. And when, coming forth from the wood,
we came near to the nearest villages, we were met in our
way by many multitudes, giving praise to God. And
they went with us for the space of about eight leagues,
devoutly helping us all in the carrying of our holy bur-
den, and in singing God's praise they diligently joined
their voices with ours.
But when we saw that we could not arrive on that
day at the place of our destination, we turned aside at a
village called Ostheim, which was visible near our road;
and just as evening was falling we bore those holy
bodies into the church of the Blessed Martin which is in
that village: and leaving there most of our company to
keep watch over them I myself, with a few, made haste
onward to the place whither we were bound; and
throughout the night made ready all those things which
custom prescribes for the reception of the bodies of
saints. But in the church in which we left the sacred
treasure of those remains, a certain nun shaken with
palsy, by name Ruodlang, of the convent of Maches-
bach, which is distant from that church the space of one
league, who had been brought thither in a cart by
friends and neighbours, and who had passed the whole
night among those gathered there for watch and prayer
beside the bier of the saints, recovered the strength of
all her limbs; and on her own feet, with no one support-
ing or in the least degree assisting her, she walked back
on the morrow to the place from whence she had come.
But we, stirring ourselves at daybreak started to go
meet our companions who were coming, having with us
a countless company of our neighbours, who aroused
by the news of the approach of the saints had gathered
before our doors even at that first gleam of dawn, so
that they might journey with us to meet the saints.
And we came upon them at the place where the brook
Gernsprinz empties into the Main. Thence, going all to-
gether, and singing together the praise of the mercy of
26
our Lord Jesus Christ, we bore those holy remnants of
the most blessed Martyrs, amid the great gladness and
exultation of all who could be there, to Upper Mulin-
heim — for so, in these times, the place is called. But,
because of the very great multitude of people who going
thither before us had filled the town, we could neither
make our way to the church nor carry the bier into it;
so in a field near by, and on a rising ground, we set up
an altar under the open sky; and having set down the
bier hard by the altar we celebrated the solemn offices
of the Mass. And when these were finished, and the
multitude had gone back to their tasks, we bore those
most holy bodies into the church demanded by the
blessed Martyrs; and having placed the bier before the
altar, we carefully celebrated the Mass once again. And
while the celebration was there proceeding, a certain
boy of about fifteen years, by name Daniel, from the
Portian country, who was come thither with others of
the poor to beg, and was so bent that unless he lay down
on his back he could not see the heavens, came close to
the bier; and of a sudden, as if struck by a blow, he fell
down. And after he had lain there a good while, like unto
one sleeping, all his limbs were straightened, and regain-
ing the strength of his sinews he rose up before our eyes
and was sound. These things came to pass on the six-
teenth day before the calends of February, and the light
of that day was so great and so clear that it equalled
the splendour of the sun in summer; and the calmness
of the very air was so gentle and sweet that it seemed
with soft sunshine to surpass the season of spring.
27
And next day we placed the holy bodies of the blessed
Martyrs, enclosed in a new shrine, in the apse of the
church; and as is the custom in France we put over it a
wooden frame and to give it the grace of beauty cov-
ered it with cloths of fine linen and silk; and near by we
made an altar. And setting up beside it, one on each
side, the two standards of Our Lord's passion which on
our journey had gone before the bier, we took pains,
within the limits permitted by the narrowness of our
means, to make that place fitting and suitable for the
celebration of divine services; and appointed clergy
who should keep wakeful watch there night and day,
and should diligently and continually utter the praises
of the Lord. And when these had been called to
their post, not only by our desire but by a
royal letter which had been sent to meet
us on the way, we betook ourselves
once more to the Emperor's pal-
ace, with great rejoicing of
spirit; and the Lord pros-
pered our journey.
3
SOME RELICS OF SAINT MARCELLINUS, PRE-
VIOUSLY STOLEN, ARE RECOVERED, AND
TRANSLATED TO OTHER PLACES. 2* MIRA-
CLES WROUGHT.1
O^LY a few days after I had come to court,
ihaving risen pretty early as is the custom of
imperial officials,; I went to the palace the,
first thing in the morning. When I entered
there, I found Hildoin, of whom I made mention in the
former book, seated by the door of the royal bedcham-
ber and awaiting the appearance of the prince. Having
greeted him as good manners teach us, I asked him to
rise and come with me to a certain window from which
there is a view of the lower parts of the palace. Leaning
against it side by side, we had much talk about the
translation of the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter,
and of that wondrous miracle as well which was made
manifest in the flux of blood with which I have recorded
that their casket sweated for seven days. And when we
came to that part of our discourse where mention was
made of the garments which were found with the
bodies, and I said that the robe of the blessed Marcel-
i. Here begins Book II} in the Surian edition; and that the division
into books is really the author's appears from the words " of whom I
made mention in the former book."
29
linus was of wondrously fine texture, he answered, like
one who had had seen the object as much as I had, that
what I. said about the robes was true. Astonished and
perplexed by this, I proceeded to ask him whence this
knowledge of garments which he had never seen could
have reached him. But he, looking me in the face, kept
silent for a little while, and then said "It is better, I
think, that you should know from me what if I did not
speak you would nevertheless soon know from others,
and that I should exactly inform you of a matter which
any other informer will not tell you with exactness, nor
indeed can, for it is so provided by nature that no one
can speak the whole truth about a thing of which he
acquired knowledge not by experience but by the ac-
counts of others. I so trust your character that I believe
you will deal justly with me when by my story you
know the whole truth about what has been done."
And when I had answered in few words that I would
not deal. with him otherwise than was fitting, "The
priest," he.said, "who by my order proceeded to Rome
for the purpose of bringing me the relics of the blessed
Tiburtius, when he found that he could not accomplish
as he desired the end for which he was come there, and
when your notary after receiving the relics of the holy
Martyrs about which we have been talking had de-
cided to return home, advised that he should tarry at
Rome a little longer, while the priest himself, with Lu-
niso the brother of Deusdona and with his men who
were to bear those holy ashes, should go on before him
as far as Pavia, and should there await his coming with
30
Deusdona. The plan pleased them both, and leaving
the two at Rome, the priest, with Luniso and the serv-
ants who bore the relics, set out for Pavia. When they
arrived there, the caskets containing the holy ashes
were placed in your church behind the altar, and in that
church were guarded by clergy and laity with most
watchful care. But one night, when the priest himself
among others was watching in the church to this end, it
happened, as he asserts, that just about the middle of
the night, drowsiness gradually stealing upon them,
every one of those who were gathered within that
church for the purpose of keeping watch, except he him-
self, fell asleep. Then he fell to pondering, and it seemed
that without some great purpose it could not have come
to pass that so sudden a slumber should overcome so
many men ; and deciding that he ought to avail himself
of the chance offered him he rose up, and with a lighted
taper made his way noiselessly to the caskets. Then,
burning the cords of the seals by putting the flame of
the taper close to them, he quickly opened the caskets
without a key; and taking of each body a portion, such
as he thought most prudent, he fastened the seals to-
gether again, as if they had been unbroken, with the
ends of the burnt cords; and, no one having seen what
he had done, he went back to his own seat. Afterwards,
when he had got back to me, he gave me the relics of
the saints thus obtained by theft, and at first declared
that they were not of Saint Marcellinus or Saint Peter
but of Saint Tiburtius. Then, as he feared I know not
what, he told me in secret of what saints the relics were,
and fully explained to me by what means he had got
hold of them. We have placed them in Saint-Medard's
in a place where honour is formally done them, and
where they are worshipped with great reverence by all
who come thither; but whether they are rightly ours
remains for you to decide."
When I heard these words, I remembered what I had
heard from a certain man with whom I had tarried dur-
ing the journey which I had lately made to the palace.
Among other things, in talk with me, he said: "Have
you heard nothing of the rumour about the holy Martyrs
Marcellinus and Peter which is floating in these parts ? "
And when I answered that I knew nothing of it, he said,
"Those who come from Saint Sebastian tell us that a
certain priest of the Abbot Hildoin, who made the jour-
ney to Rome with your notary, when they were on their
way back, and in a certain place had lodgings in com-
mon, and all your men were heavy with drink and
sleep, and completely ignorant of what was going on,
opened the caskets in which the bodies of the saints
were enclosed, and took them out, and going his way
carried them to Hildoin, and that they are now at Saint-
Medard's: but that a very little of the holy dust re-
mained in your caskets, which was brought you by
your notary." Remembering these words, and compar-
ing them with those which were spoken by Hildoin, I
was moved by no small disturbance of mind; and par-
ticularly for this reason, that I had as yet made no plan
by which I could expel from the hearts of the beguiled
multitude that abominable rumour spread abroad by
32
the wiles of the devil. Nevertheless II judged it best that
I should request Hildoin to return me the very thing
which, after that voluntary admission, he could not
deny to have been taken from my caskets, and carried
to him, and received by him. This I took care to do as
soon as I possibly could; and although he was a little
harder and slower than I could have wished in coming
to agreement, he was nevertheless overcome by the
earnestness of my prayers, and yielded to my insist-
ence, though a little while before he had declared that,
particularly in this matter, he would yield to the de-
mands of nobody.
Meanwhile, having sent letters to Ratleig and Lu-
niso, — for they were in the place where I set down the
bodies of the Martyrs, — I took care to inform them
what manner of rumour concerning those same Martyrs
was abroad through almost all Gaul; admonishing them
to consider whether they could recall or remember any
such incident in their journey, or anything like what
Hildoin asserted concerning what his priest had done.
Coming to me forthwith at the palace, they related a
story extremely different from that which Hildoin told.
For first they declared everything which that priest had
told Hildoin to be false; and that after they left Rome
no opportunity had been given either to that priest or
to anybody else whatsoever by which he could have
had a chance to commit a crime of such sort. But at the
same time it was clear that! this very thing had hap-
pened to the holy ashes of the Martyrs, namely at
Rome, in the house of Deusdona, through the greed of
33
Luniso and the cunning of the aforesaid priest, at the
time when the body of the blessed Marcellinus, re-
moved from its tomb, was hidden in the house of Deus-
dona; and this they declared the manner of the deed.
That aforesaid priest of Hildoin, disappointed in the
hope which he had conceived of obtaining the body of
Saint Tiburtius, undertook, in order that he might not
return completely empty-handed to his master, to ob-
tain by deceit what he could not come by honestly. So
approaching Luniso, for he knew him to be poor and
therefore covetous, and offering him four pieces of gold
and five of silver, he inveigled him into committing this
piece of treachery. So, accepting the offered money, he
opened the chest in which the body of the blessed Mar-
cellinus had been placed and shut up by Deusdona, and
gave that most good-for-nothing scoundrel full power
to take from it what he chose, as he had hoped would be
the case. And in that robbery he was not frugal; for he
had taken away of the holy ashes of the blessed Martyr
as much as a vessel having the measure of a pint and a
half could hold. That the deed was done in manner, Lu-
niso himself, who had plotted it with the aforesaid
priest, averred, throwing himself at my feet, with tears
and sobs.
Then I, when the truth of the matter was discovered,
ordered Ratleig and Luniso to go back thither from
whence they were come. And thereafter, when I had
talked with Hildoin, and an agreement had been made
between us as to when the holy relics should be given
back to me, I ordered two clerks of our household,
34
namely Hiltfrid and Filimar — the one a priest, the
other a sub-deacon — to go to Soissons for the purpose
of receiving them: sending by those same messengers
to the place from which those same relics were to be
borne away, in order that I might there be prayed for,
pieces of gold to the number of a hundred. When they
were come on Palm Sunday to the monastery of Saint-
Medard, they tarried there three days; and having re-
ceived that peerless treasure for which they had been
sent, they returned, accompanied by two brothers of
that same monastery, with all the speed they could, to
the palace; the relics nevertheless they delivered not to
me but to Hildoin. And he, receiving them, put them in
his private chapel, to be kept until, after the manifold
business of the feast of Easter was done, he should have
spare time in which he could show me that which was
to be returned before he returned it. And when, a week
or more after holy Easter being past, the king had
emerged from the palace for the purpose of hunting,
Hildoin, according to what had been agreed between
us, having taken up those relics from his oratory where
they had been kept safe and borne them to the Church
of the Holy Mother of God and there placed them on
the altar, caused me to be fetched to receive them.
Then, opening the coffer in which the relics were con-
tained, he showed it to me, that I might see what it was
that he was giving back to me and that I was receiving.
Then, lifting that same coffer from the altar he
placed it in my hands, and having offered suitable
prayer, he took upon himself also the duty of him that
35
leads a choir, and caused those of the clergy who were
skilled in psalmody to chant an anthem befitting the
praise of the Martyrs; and so singing he followed us,
bearing off that priceless treasure, as far as the doors of
the church. Thence in slow procession, with crosses and
candles, we made our way, praising the mercy of God,
to an oratory which had been built with unskilful hands
in our house; and into it, for no other place was to be
found there, we bore the holy relics. But in that proces-
sion of ours, which I have said that we made from the
church to our oratory, something miraculous hap-
pened, which I think ought not to pass in silence. For
when we were coming out of the church, and singing
praise to our Lord God with loud voice, such abund-
ance of a very sweet smell filled all that part of the city
of Aix-la-Chapelle which looks westward from the
church that almost all the inhabitants of that part of
the city, and all those at the same time who for any
reason or business had then betaken themselves to that
part of the city were so divinely stirred by the fragrance
that, leaving all the work they had in hand, they all
made haste, running as fast as they could, first to the
church, and then, as it were following a scent, to our
oratory into which they had heard that these relics had
been borne. So within our gates was a boundless con-
course of people, giving utterance to joy and to wonder;
and though a great part of them who had gathered to-
gether knew not what it was that was happening,
nevertheless with gladness and exceeding joy they gave
praise together to the mercy of Almighty God.
36
But, after by the spread of fame it was noised abroad
that the relics of the holy Martyr Marcellinus had been
brought to that place, there gathered together, not
only from the city of Aix-la-Chapelle itself, and neigh-
bouring or adjacent towns, but also from places and vil-
lages a good deal further away, such a constant and
huge crowd that, except of evenings and at night, there
was no easy access for us to that oratory, when we
would celebrate divine service. The infirm were brought
from all sides, and those who suffered from divers dis-
orders were set down by their kinsfold and friends be-
side the walls of the oratory. You could see there al-
most all kinds of bodily affliction cured, in all sexes and
ages, by the virtue which is of Christ the Lord, and by
the merit of the most blessed Martyr. Sight was given
to the blind, gait to the lame, hearing to the deaf,
speech to the dumb; even paralytics and those de-
prived of all strength of the body were brought thither
by the hands of others, and made sound went back to
their belongings on their own feet.
When these things were carried by the reports of Hil-
doin to the ears of the king, he first resolved that on re-
turning to the palace he would make haste to our ora-
tory, where these things were wrought, and there do
reverence to the Martyr; but advised by the counsel of
that same Hildoin not to do so, he directed that the rel-
ics should be borne to the larger church, and when they
were borne thither he did reverence to them with hum-
ble prayer, and after the solemnities of the Mass had
been celebrated he made offering to the blessed Mar-
37
tyrs, Marcellinus and Peter, of a certain manor,
ated near the river Aar, named Ludovesdorf, having
fifteen farms and nine acres of vineyards. And the
queen made offering of her girdle, made of gold and
jewels, weighing three pounds. When these things were
accomplished, the relics were carried back again to their
proper place, that is to our oratory, and there they were
for forty days or more than that, until the time when
the Emperor, leaving the palace for the purpose of
hunting, sought the forest, after his yearly custom.
When this was done, we too, after making ready what-
ever seemed needful for our progress, set out with those
same relics from the town of Aix-la-Chapelle. Now at
the very moment of our starting a certain old woman,
very well known in the palace, of about eighty years,
labouring under a contraction of the sinews, was cured
in our very sight. And she, as we learned from her own
statement, having been burdened with this disease for
fifty years, had fulfilled the office of walking by creep-
ing, painfully striving with knees and hands.
So started on our journey, aided by the merits of the
saints, we came, by the help of the Lord, on the six-
teenth day to the village of Mulinheim, in which when
we set out for court we had left the holy ashes of the
blessed Martyrs. And in that journey how much joy
and how much gladness was brought by the coming of
those relics to the people gathered about our way I
have no right to pass over in silence, and nevertheless it
cannot be revealed in all its fulness by any manner of
telling. Yet I must try to tell it, lest a thing tending
38
very greatly to the praise of God, should seem, as it
were for idleness, to be submerged in silence. And first
indeed my mind stirs me to tell of what, when we came
forth from the palace we remember ourselves to have
seen, in the presence of many. There is a stream called
Worm, having at the distance of about two thousand
paces from the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle a bridge across
it. Coming to this, in order that the multitude which
had followed us to that point from the palace and now
desired to go back might have a season of prayer, we
halted for a little while. And there a certain man from
among those who were praying, coming near to the rel-
ics with another, and looking his companion in the face,
said, "For love and honour of this saint,! free thee from
the debt for which thou knowest thou are beholden to
me." For he owed him, as the man himself admitted,
half a pound of silver. And again, another man, leading
to the relics a fellow whom he had taken by the hand,
said "Thou didst kill my father, and therefore we have
been at blood-feud; but now, for the love and honour of
God and of this saint, putting aside all hatred, I wish to
join and pledge faith with thee that from this time
forth forever there shall be friendship between us: and
may this Saint be witness of the love agreed upon by
thee and me, and work vengeance against him who
shall first attempt to break this peace."
And from this point the crowd which had started
from the palace with us, after worshipping and kissing
the holy relics, with many tears which from excess of
rejoicing they could not keep back, returned home.
39
And with another great company which there met us,
singing Kyrie eleison without interruption, we went on
our way to a place where we were joined in like manner
by others hurrying towards us; and then the second
great company, like unto the first, having made a
prayer, returned again to their daily duties. And in this
manner, day by day accompanied from the break of
dawn even until dusk fell by crowds of people singing
praise to Christ the Lord, we made our way from the
palace of Aix-la-Chapelle even unto the aforesaid vil-
lage of Mulinheim, the Lord prospering our journey.
And there upon the altar behind which the casket con-
taining the holy ashes of the martyrs had been placed
we set down those relics in a jewelled box; and there
they stayed placed until, in the month of November,
when we were making ready to go to the palace, we
were warned in a vision that we should not leave that
place before we had joined them once again to the body
from which they had been borrowed. But how it was re-
vealed that this ought to be done is not to be passed
over in silence; because not only in a dream, as is usual,
but also by certain signs and menaces it was made
clear to those charged with the duty of keeping watch
that the blessed Martyrs were entirely determined that
in this matter their commands should be obeyed to the
letter.
There was one of the clerks who were appointed to
keep watch in the church, by name Landolph, to whom
the duty of striking the bell was then committed, and
he had his bed near the eastern door of the church.
40
When, after the custom of vigils and matins, he had
risen in his usual manner and had struck the bell, and
the service being finished before daybreak, he wished
again to sleep, he prostrated himself for the purpose
of supplication before the holy ashes of the martyrs.
There, as he avers, when he began to repeat the fiftieth
Psalm,1 he heard close to him on the pavement as it
were the sound of the feet of a man walking hither and
thither on both sides. And stricken with by no means
small fear, he raised himself a little on his knees, and
began to look about him in every direction, supposing
that one of the poor, when the doors of the church were
shut, had skulked in some corner. And when he per-
ceived that none other than he himself was within the
walls of the church he disposed himself again for prayer,
and started to recite the psalm he had begun before;
but, before he could finish a single verse of it, the jew-
elled box which had been placed on the altar, contain-
ing the holy relics of the blessed Marcellinus, sounded
so loud with a sudden ringing that you would have
thought it had been shivered, as it were by the blow
of a hammer. Two doors of the church also, that is the
Western and the Southern, as if some one were shaking
and pounding them, sounded in like manner.
Frightened and greatly perplexed by these things, for
he had no manner of notion what he ought to do, he
rose from the altar and threw himself in great fear on
his bed; and overcome of a sudden by sleep, he saw a
i. Deus Deorum, etc. — "The Lord, even the most mighty God, hath
spoken" are the first words of it in the Anglican Psalter.
41
certain man, by countenance unknown to him, stand-
ing by his side, who addressed him in some such words
as these: "Is it true," he asked, "that Eginhard wishes
to make such haste to the palace that before he starts
he will not put back the relics of Saint Marcellinus,
which he has brought here, in the place from which
they were taken away?" — And when he answered
that he knew nothing of this matter — "Arise," he
said, " at first dawn, and tell him by order of the Mar-
tyrs not to dare go from hence or start in any direction
until he has restored those relics to their place." He sat
up wide awake, and was careful to impart to me, when
he could come to me quickest, this which he had been
bidden to tell. And I, thinking that in business of this
kind nothing should be done slothfully, and indeed
judging that what was commanded ought to be carried
out without any intervention of delay, gave orders on
that very day to make ready those things which seemed
needful for the purpose; and next day, with the most
anxious pains, I carefully joined those relics once again
to the body from which they had been taken away.
How grateful this deed was to the most blessed Martyrs
was proved by the plain witness of the miracle which
ensued. For the next night, when we were sitting in the
church for the solemn office of Matins, a certain old
man, deprived of the use of his legs, came in to prayer,
painfully creeping with his hands and knees. In the
presence of us all, by the strength of God and the merits
of the most blessed Martyrs, he was so perfectly cured,
at the very hour when he came in, that for walking he
42
no further needed the support of a crutch. And he
declared as well that he had been deaf for five succes-
sive years, and that together with the use of his feet
hearing had been restored to him. And so, when all
these things were come to pass, I set out, as
I have said above I wished to do, for
court, there to pass the winter,
pondering many things
in my mind.
MIRACLES WROUGHT FOR THE DEAF AND
DUMB, THE DISTORTED AND OTHER SUF-
FERERS, AT MULINHEIM. ** BEER CHANGED
TO WINE. ^^ A TORCH LIGHTED OF ITS OWN
BOUT to write now of the cures and miracles
which the most blessed Martyrs of Christ,
Marcellinus and Peter, wrought in sundry
places, after their most holy bodies had been
carried from Rome into France, — or rather which,
through their blessed merits and loving prayers, the
king of martyrs himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, deigned
to perform, — I have thought it needful to set down, in
a short preface, that the greater part of those things
which I have made ready to write about was called to
my attention by the reports of others. That I might put
confidence in them, however, I was so firmly persuaded
by the things which I myself saw and knew to have oc-
curred in my presence that without the slightest scruple
of doubt I could believe to be true what was said by
those who bore witness that they had seen these things,
even though of the persons from whom I heard it I
might have either little or no knowledge up to that
time. But of all these things it seems to me that those
I. Here begins Book III in the Surian edition.
44
should first be written down which occurred and were
seen by myself in that place to which those same most
blessed Martyrs directed that their most holy ashes
should be translated. Then those things which were
done in the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle, under the very
eyes of the court, are to be recorded. Then, I thought,
should be put down the works which were wrought in
divers places to which, at the request of religious men
and by my assistance, the holy relics of those saints
were carried; so that, following this order of narration,
nothing should be omitted of all the signs and miracles
which could possibly have come to the notice of our
petty faculties. And so, now that the preface is finished,
let us set forth the miracles, themselves the true object
of our discourse.
After the holy bodies of the most blessed Martyrs, as
has already been set forth in the former books, at their
own bidding but in a manner which we ourselves car-
ried out, had been borne, with great rejoicing of the
faithful peoples, to the place in which they now rest,
and when the solemnities of the Mass had been cele-
brated in the open air, they had been carried by the
hands of priests, of whom at that time no small number
was there gathered together, and the bier on which
they were borne had been set down near the altar, and
again another service was there beginning to be cele-
•brated, of a sudden a certain youth, afflicted with a
melting of the kidneys and therefore bent and hobbling
on crutches, broke forth from the midst of the crowd of
people there standing about, and desiring to bow down
45
in worship fell down upon his knees; but in a marvel-
lous manner, as if some one had plucked or rather
dragged him back, he fell face up and for a very long
time lay like unto one asleep. Then, as though awaken-
ing, he lifted himself up to a sitting posture; and next,
after a very little while, he stood up, no one helping
him, and standing on his feet in the midst of the crowd
swirling about him, giving thanks together with others
for restored health, he joined in the praises of the mercy
of God. He told us, in answer to questions, that he had
come thither with others of the poor and pilgrims from
the Portian country, and that he was called Daniel. At
about the same hour, I may say at the very same mo-
ment, at which within the church and before the altar
itself he of whom we have now spoken had by the
strength of Christ and the intercession of the Martyrs
recovered soundness of body, a certain old woman
stricken with the palsy, and deprived of the use of al-
most all her limbs, lying outside the doors of the church,
called upon the Martyrs to help her; and by and by, in
plain sight of all who were about her, she began to be
shaken by movements of the entrails, like unto sea-
sickness, and thereafter to cast forth in vomiting a
great abundance of phlegm and bile. Having done this,
and sipped a very little cold water, she asked that she
should be lifted up from the place where she was lying,
and hobbling with a crutch she went into the church,
and when she had worshipped the Martyrs and recov-
ered the strength of her limbs, she went back on foot to
where she belonged.
46
In the meantime a certain man, by name Willibert,
who had a house not far from the church in which the
bodies of the blessed Martyrs now rest, approached the
bier, among others who were come together to show
reverence for the saints, and offered up, in the guise of a
gift, forty pieces of silver. And when he was asked by us
who he was, and what the offering of this gift meant, he
answered that a few days before he had been seized
with a very great weakness of body, and that he had
sunk to a point where, despaired of by all who had seen
him, he had been exhorted at once to dispose of all his
goods for the benefit of his soul; and that he had done
so. And when he had arranged to what holy places
everything he had should be given, one of his servants
lamented with loud groans that they had managed mat-
ters rashly and negligently, in that none of his property
had been given to the saints then just coming from
Rome. And so those about him fell to asking one an-
other whether they knew of any possession left him
which could be sent to the Martyrs. Now at that time
they were in Michilinstadt, and it had not yet been
made clear by any signs that they were to go on from
thence. And when some one answered and said that of
all his goods only one pig remained, and that they had
not settled to whom it should be given, he rejoiced and
gave orders that it should be sold and that after his
death the price of it should be sent to supply candles for
the Martyrs. When he had uttered these words he says
that he felt so sudden a relief from his malady that
straightway, all pain having departed, he had longing
47
to eat, and having taken food he recovered strength so
quickly that the next day he was able with great ease
to go about all the business and work which the habit
of his affairs demanded. So after this the pig had been
sold, and this was the price of it, which according to his
vow he was offering to the blessed Martyrs.
The rest of the wonders and miracles which God
wrought through them for the good of men, although
• the order in which they are related I think of no im-
portance, I have determined to describe as they occur
to memory; for in telling of them, the chief thing to
consider is what came to pass and why, rather than
when.
Now when the relics of the blessed Martyrs had been
placed with solemn rites in that same church, where ac-
cording to the custom of our established religion the
holy offices of the Mass are daily celebrated, it hap-
pened that one day, when divine service was in pro-
gress, and we had taken our place in the upper parts of
the church, looking down at the people gathered to-
gether below under our eyes, a certain half-naked clerk,
who had come among others to that service, and was
standing in the midst of the crowd, of a sudden fell
down so very heavily that for a long time he lay on the
pavement like one dead. And when some of those about
him tried to lift him and to stand him up, for he was
hard of breathing, so great a burst of blood came from
his mouth and his nostrils that the whole front part of
his body — that is, his breast and his belly down to the
garment which covered his privy parts — was covered
with the outflow. When they had brought water to re-
fresh him, he recovered his strength and could speak
clearly. But when he was afterwards questioned by us,
he declared that from infancy up to that moment he
had been unable to hear anything or to speak. His coun-
try, he said, was Britain and himself of the nation of the
English; for the purpose of being with his mother, who
was going on a pilgrimage to Rome, he had started on a
journey and among other pilgrims, who wished to go to-
gether to Rome, he had come to that place, but when
his companions went on he had stayed there; and the
day on which he was made whole was the seventh from
that when he had reached the place. And when we
asked him his name, he answered that he was com-
pletely ignorant of his name, for the reason that from
the time when he became deaf he had never heard his
name.
A few days afterwards, when after the customary
manner we were gathered together in the church for the
vespers service, a certain deaf and dumb girl, whom her
father and her brother, to the end that she should seek
to be made sound, had led from the country of the Be-
turiges through many places where saints abide, and at
last brought thither had made to stand among others in
that same church, was of a sudden stirred as it were by
a madness; she struck together as hard as she could the
tablets by the noise of which she was wont to seek alms,
and cast herself raving among the people gathered in
front of her. Then running to the left-hand wall of the
church, and leaping up three feet or more as if she
49
would climb it, she fell down on her back; and when she
had lain there a little while, far more like one dead than
one sleeping, and was sprinkled almost all over by an
issue of blood which gushed without stint from her
mouth and nostrils, she was lifted up by those standing
about her and carried into the middle of the church.
And when she had lain there also for a little while she
sat up, like one awakened from deep sleep; and then,
stretching out her hands to those who were standing
about her, she begged them with what movements of
the head were in her power that she should be raised to
her feet. Being raised up she was led to the altar. When
she saw Ratleig there, standing among the other clergy-
men who were together near the altar, and looking at
her, she straightway burst forth with these words:
"Thou art Ratleig," she said. "Thou," she said, "art
called by this name. Thou art the servant of these
saints." And when he asked her whence she knew this,
or who had told her his name: "These very saints," she
said, "who are here at rest, came to me when I lay like
one sleeping, and put their fingers into my ears and
said to me: 'When thou shalt have been raised up, and
shalt make thy way to the altar, know that the young
clergyman whom thou shalt see standing before thee
and looking upon thee is called Ratleig; and he is our
servant, for it is he that brought our bodies to this
place.'" And in truth it was so. For he was the very
man of whom we recorded in the first book that we had
sent him to Rome for the purpose of receiving the relics
of the saints from a certain deacon and bringing them
50
back to us. And this girl, in this wise and in our pres-
ence, through the virtue of the most blessed Martyrs,
was freed from the spirit of evil and restored to the full
soundness of her body; and her father and brother, who
had brought her thither, bore witness that from the
time of her birth she had been deaf and dumb.
Now though I myself did not see the miracle which I
am about to relate, I can believe the words of those by
whose account it came to no less than mine own eyes;
so, once for all, and without a qualm of doubt, I have
decided to set it down not as if I had heard of it but as
if I myself had seen it.
Certain merchants of the city of Mainz, who were ac-
customed to buy grain in the upper parts of Germany
and to bring it to their city by the river Main, brought .
to the church of the blessed Martyrs a certain blind
man, of the nation of the Aquitanians, by name Au-
brey, whom they had taken aboard their boat, at his
own request, for the purpose of deserving reward from
God. When he disembarked there, and was received as
guest in the house of the guardian of the church, he
tarried there seven days or more. For besides blindness,
which seemed natural to him for the reason that he had
no eyes, he had a dreadful and unsightly infirmity of
the whole body. For there was a great trembling of all
his limbs which shook him in so troublous a manner
that he was wholly unable to convey food to his mouth
with his own hands. On a certain day, when he was ly-
ing fast asleep in the forenoon, at the house where he
abode, he saw in his sleep a certain man come up to him
51
and urge him to rise without delay and make haste to
church; saying that the time was come when through
the virtue of the Saints he ought to be freed from that
pitiable suffering. Awakened, and led to the church, he
sat down on a certain stone, in front of the gate. At that
time within the church divine service was going on, as
is the custom, and when the prayers were finished
which precede the holy reading of the gospel, it began
to be read. When hardly two verses had been read
through, of a sudden, as if struck by a blow, that shak-
ing man cried out very loud, saying: "Help me, Saint
Marcellinus ! " Now although all who were in church
were no little disturbed by this noise, the greater part
by reason of their respect for the reading of the gospel
remained where they were, but many ran out to see
what was the cause of this crying out; and, as they later
bore witness, they found the man aforesaid, in the place
where he had been sitting, lying stretched out and fiat
on his back, and his chin and breast were flooded with
blood gushing from his nostrils. And when he was stood
up by them, and had refreshed himself by sipping a
very little cold water, he told them that it had seemed
to him, when he had sent forth that cry, that some one
had struck him a blow on the head, and so he had im-
plored the help of the blessed Martyr. But it seems that
this blow was so good for him that from the very mo-
ment no more trace of that unsightly trembling ap-
peared in his body. Afterwards he stayed almost two
years in that very place, and, as he himself bore wit-
ness, there was no night in these two years in which he
52
did not see in dreams those Martyrs who had made him
whole; and he heard from them many things which he
was bidden to tell others; of which we now see many
fulfilled which he then foretold should come to pass.
A few days afterward, we saw another man, afflicted
with a similar disorder, cured in the same church by the
merits of the same Saints in no dissimilar manner. For
one night, when matins was celebrating, and we were
seated in the church to hear the readings of divine law,
a certain man entered in the dress of a clerk, hobbling
on a crutch, and with limbs so shaking that he could
hardly control his tottering footsteps. And when he
leaned against the wall to pray he cried out with a loud
voice, and thereupon fell face downward; and after a
little time had intervened he rose up sound of that dis-
order by which he had been possessed. And when we
asked him if at the time when he recovered health any-
thing had appeared to him besides what we all could
see, he said that a little before he had come into the
church he went for purposes of prayer to the old church
— which was to the westward of the new church, where
the Martyrs then lay at rest, and a little way off; and
that, as he found it closed, he prayed before the doors.
Then, when he stood up, and started to go to the
church, he had seen a certain clergyman, with vener-
able white hair, robed in a white stole, going before him
thither where he wished to go. And, as he himself avers,
he followed him to the door of the church. When they
both arrived there, he who had been ahead stood aside,
pressing himself against the left-hand door post, as if he
53
wished that he whom he had proceeded for a little
while should enter first; and that when he had hesitated
to enter before him, he had ordered him to do so, by a
nod of the head. And when he had entered, and bowed
himself down in prayer, he had stood behind his back,
and with his fist had struck him on the back of the neck
and knocked him down, and thereupon had vanished.
But no other except him who was made sound could see
him.
At about the same time, when having risen in the
night we went to the church, we found before the gates
of the church a certain boy lying in the porch, so piti-
ably drawn together that his knees touched his chin.
And he asked one of those who followed us to carry him
into the church; and he, moved by pity, lifted him up
and set him down in the church, near the chancel. And
of a sudden he was overcome by a flood of sleep, there
where he lay; and he did not fully awake until, by the
intercessions of the Saints, he had been so perfectly
cured of that pitiable distortion that awakening of his
own accord he rose up from the place where he had been
carried in the arms of another, and made his way to the
altar, that he might give thanks to God. But when day-
light shone forth and we could speak with him, he
stated that three times, before the bell of the church
sounded, he had been accosted by a certain clergyman,
to him unknown, and exhorted to let nothing prevent
him from coming to church at the time of the Matins
service. And that he had done so, and then, as we saw,
had recovered, while asleep in the church, complete
54
soundness of his body. And he looked as if he were
about fifteen years old.
Likewise we saw another cured in the same place, in
like manner, and in about the same time — not a boy,
as this had been, but a very old and feeble man. We
found him one night when we came to the door of the
church by reason of the celebration of Matins, at the
very threshold. Hobbling on his knees, he supported
himself on two crutches, and thus by his very slow
movement delayed our passing in. And when we were
standing behind his back, brought to pause by the
slowness of his movement, such a fragrance of the
sweetest savour coming forth from the church filled our
nostrils that it surpassed in excellency any mingling of
all spices and thymes ever made by art. He entered at
last, and in our presence lay him down close to the
chancel, as if about to sleep. We also entered, took our
places, and together with others chanted, after the ac-
customed manner, the psalms which were reciting. But
when the first reading began, we heard that same old
man groan, and like one who had a blow cry out for
aid; and then, after a little space of time, we saw him
rise to a sitting posture, and presently, having taken up
the crutches with which he was accustomed to direct
his steps, stand up on his feet. And we saw only these
things. But he declared that it had seemed to him that,
as he lay there, two men as it were had laid hold of him,
the one by shoulders and arms, the other by knees and
feet, and thus by pulling had stretched out the sinews
which had been drawn together. And since besides this
55
shortening of sinews he averred that he had been
troubled with deafness, he declared that when he had
lifted himself up to a sitting posture there had come
upon his head as it were the blow of a fist hitting very
hard; and that at the same time he had heard the voice
of one bidding that thenceforth he should hear. This
old man, made sound in this manner, declared that he
came from the country of the Helvetians which is now
called Argovia, and that he was of the nation of the
Germans.
Another man, but afflicted with a like contraction of
the sinews, who said that he came from the city of
Liege, where Saint Lambert rests in the body, one Sun-
day night, after the Matins service was finished and we
had returned from church, when for the benefit of those
who were come from afar and needed to hurry back to
their daily duties, a priest was celebrating in due man-
ner the sacrament of the Host of Salvation, fell down, in
the presence of all who were there, on the pavement, and
there lay, for a little space of time, as if fast asleep;
then, like one roused from slumber, he stood up, no-
body giving him help. And when one of those about him
picked up the crutches which he had hitherto been ac-
customed to use, and which, when he fell, had slipped
from his hands and lay a little way off, and held them
out to him, he refused them, saying: "May I never
touch those things again!" So, cured in this manner, he
went back on foot to his home, from which he had
made his way to the threshold of the Martyrs rather
creeping than walking.
56
Not long afterwards, in the month of November,
when, in accordance with my custom of passing the
winter at the palace, I had made ready to go to court;
and having started on the journey, had crossed the
river Rhine, and had stopped to tarry at a royal manor
which has the name of Zinrich, it happened that after
supper, which had engaged a certain part of the night,
I betook myself with friends of mine to the retirement
of a chamber where I was to sleep. Suddenly the serv-
ant who was accustomed to provide us with drink came
in, as if he had some news to tell. Looking at him, I
asked, "What do you wish to tell us? For, as I perceive
you have something, I know not what, which you wish
to bring to our attention." Then he said, "Two marvels
have just been wrought in our presence, which I come
to describe to you." And when I ordered him to say
whatever he would, "Just now," he said, "when you
got up from supper and entered this chamber, I went
down with my fellow-servants to the cellar which is un-
der the room where you supped. And there, when we
began to serve out beer to the servants who were come
for it, a boy sent by one of our fellow-servants came in,
with a flagon in his hand which he asked loudly to be
filled for him. When it was filled, he also requested that
a little bit of that same beer should be given him to
drink. It was given him in a can which by chance stood
empty on the cask in which the beer was. But when to
drink it he put it to his lips, he cried out, in great as-
tonishment, that this was wine, not beer. And when he
who had filled his flagon, and had drawn the draught
57
which had been given him from the same tap, began to
accuse him of lying — 'Take it,' he said, 'and taste it;
and then you will make sure that I have spoken not a
lie but the truth.' He took it and tasted it, and declared
that to him the savour was more like wine than beer.
Then a third and a fourth, and the rest who were pres-
ent there, testing and marvelling one by one, drank up
all that was in the can. And as many as tasted it out of
the can bore witness that it had the savour of unmixed
wine, not of beer.
"Just then, when they were amazed and perplexed
by their wonder at this marvel, it happened that a
taper, whose light they used there, and which shone
fastened to the wall hard by the cask, fell, though no-
body touched it, down to the pavement, wet with
damp; and there was so quenched that not even the
smallest spark remained alive in it. And one of them,
snatching it up, ran to the door; but much troubled by
the dreadfulness of the dark, before he got out, though
he was on the very threshold, cried out: 'Holy Martyrs
Marcellinus and Peter help us ! ' And at that appeal, the
taper, which he held in his hand, was lighted." — When
I heard these things I presently, as was fitting, spoke
words of praise and gave thanks to Almighty God, who
always and everywhere glorifies his saints, and deigned
to gladden with such manifestation of their powers us
their servants, who then had the holy relics of them
with us. But him who had brought me the news I bade,
when the story was finished, to go back to his abode.
And then, when I had laid me down in bed to sleep, I
58
began to turn many things over in my mind and to
wonder what that changing of beer into wine, that is of
the worse drink into the better could mean or signify;
and why a miracle of this kind had taken place just
there, that is in a royal residence, and not rather in the
place where the most holy bodies of the blessed Martyrs
who through the power of Christ had worked their
wonders were laid hidden. But although by long and
careful pondering I could come to no sure answer to
this questioning,! I nevertheless felt sure, and shall al-
ways feel sure, that the holy power on high, through
which these miracles and others of this kind are
believed to be wrought, never allows any
thing to happen or to be done without
good reason among the creatures
whom I doubt not to be-
long to his providence
and government.
iviev 5*
OTHER MIRACLES DONE AT MULINHEIM;
THE DEAF AND DUMB, THE PALSIED, AND
THE DERANGED CURED. 2* A LIGHT VOUCH-
SAFED TRAVELLERS BY NIGHT. 2V A LITTLE
BOOK OFFERED THE EMPEROR.-
SO, having started on my journey, as I said
above, I proceeded to court. For at that time
the Emperor Louis, who was abiding at the pal-
ace in Aix-la-Chapelle, had given orders that
an assembly of lords should take place about mid- win-
ter; where among others I too was commanded to be
present, so I was compelled to be away from the neigh-
bourhood of the blessed Martyrs, and made a far from
joyful stay at the palace. Now after exactly a month
since I arrived there was finished I sent one of our fol-
lowers, by name Ellenhard, ordering him to hurry with
all the speed he could to the door of the blessed Mar-
tyrs, and having visited the brothers whom when I set
out I had sent thither to celebrate divine service, and
having carefully inquired into all things which had hap-
pened there, to come back to us at once. When he ar-
rived there, he tarried three days. But on the fourth,
when he was making ready to return to us, that blind
man, by name Aubrey, of whom we made mention
above, detained him when he was about to start; saying
60
that he should not begin his journey before he had seen
such a wonder wrought as when told me would make
me glad with exceeding great rejoicing. He added also
that the most blessed Martyrs had appeared to him
while asleep the night before, and had given him orders
that he seek out a certain poor man, by name Gisalbert,
bowed down by a very large hump of the back, and
thereby bent forward and hobbling on short crutches;
and when he was found that he bring him, at the time
of Matins service, to the chamber which is above the
porch of the church, close by the relics which were
there: to the end that there, by the merits and power of
the saints of whom the relics were, he might be freed
from that deformity of a hump and from the incon-
venience of his bowing down. He yielded to the request,
and put off till next day the journey on which he had
made ready to start. And that blind man, searching for
the poor man he had been ordered to seek, found him;
and, as he had been commanded, placed him in the up-
per parts of the church, near the aforesaid relics, at the
time of the matins service. Now those relics, a fact we
did not yet know, were of the blessed martyr Marius,
and of his wife and sons, that is Martha, Audifax and
Habakkuk. For they also had been brought to us to-
gether with the bodies of Saint Marcellinus and Saint
Peter, and in the same chest. But he who brought them
knew not of whom the relics were; for he who had sent
them to me had promised that he would come to me,
and tell me with his own lips the names of the saints of
whom these were the relics: which later came to pass.
61
But the poor man who had been placed beside them by
the blind man aforesaid, when the second lesson of the
night service was reading after the usual manner, ut-
tered a loud cry, striking with no small fear them that
heard. And when some of the clergy, together with him
who had been bidden watch there, ran to him, they
found him face downward and stretched out before the
altar, and the pavement which was beneath his mouth
wet with a great deal of blood. Lifting him up, and re-
freshing him with water brought thither, they led him
to the lower parts of the church, that all might give
thanks, for he was sound, and stood erect, nor was any
trace left of that bowing burden like unto that of a
camel. And when this miracle was wrought in this
manner, he whom I had sent thither came back to
me as fast as he possibly could, and when he told me
what he had seen he filled me with great gladness and
rejoicing.
Not long afterwards Ratleig, who, as we have set
forth in the former books, brought the holy ashes of the
Martyrs from Rome, arrived, having been bidden, as he
said, to bring me a little book, containing a good many
headings; and the reason of it he said was like this:
that blind man of whom we have just made mention
had advised on the authority of the Martyrs that those
headings should be written down and brought me, and
he said that I should take them and offer them to the
Emperor, to read. I took the little book from him and
read it, and when it was corrected and written down
anew, I offered it, as he had ordered, to the Emperor.
62
And he also took it and read it: but of the things which
by this little book he was ordered or advised to do he
took the trouble to accomplish very few. Now what
those headings contained, or what they recommended
to be done or what left undone by him, may better be
set forth in another place than this. Nevertheless I
think that the manner in which it was revealed and or-
dered that the little book ought to be made and to be
given the King not only should not be passed over but
should be written down as openly and as clearly as it
can be.
And Ratleig said that these things came about in
this way. "A few days ago," he said, "when we came
together in church as is the manner to celebrate the
night service, that blind man whom you know came to
me, begging that I step aside with him into a more se-
cret place. I did as he wished, and with him entered the
cell where I am accustomed to sleep. Then he spoke
first, saying 'To-night, a little before we were awak-
ened by the sounding of the bells, there appeared to me
in a vision a certain man, with venerable white hair,
clothed in a white garment, holding in his hand a golden
wand, and he spoke to me in these words: "See, Au-
brey," he said, "that you fully understand all that I
shall say to you, and hold it so fast in memory that you
can also make it clear to others, who are to write it
down. For it is my will that these things be written
down and shown by your master to Louis, the Emperor
that he may read them. For truly it is very necessary
that this should be not only known but also done by the
63
prince to whose realm those same Martyrs are come by
the order of God."
" 'Thereupon beginning he dictated one after another
a dozen or more headings; and he bade me that I should
tell and explain them one by one to you and to four
others whom I will name to you; and that after this you
should make a little book of them and carry it to your
master, who now abides in the palace; and that you
should bid him, on the authority of the Martyrs, to pre-
sent it as soon as he possibly can to the Emperor.
Thereafter he added, "Do you know who I am, who bid
you do these things." Then without hesitation I an-
swered that he was Saint Marcellinus. And he said unto
me: "It is not as you suppose, but I am Gabriel, the
archangel; and I have taken on the shape and form of
Marcellinus because the Lord God has committed to
me the charge of all things and matters concerning
these same Martyrs; and I am now come to tell you
what I have bidden you write down, because it is the
will of God that those things shall be brought on their
authority, without the intrusion of delays, to the knowl-
edge of the king. And do you, as I have bidden you, go
at the first gleam of dawn after the Matins service is
over, and tell what you have heard to those to whom I
have ordered you to tell it." — Then I said, "There is
no one who will believe that an angel has spoken to me,
or has ordered me to bear these tidings." And he an-
swered and said: "It will not be so; but I will give you
a power which you shall exercise in their presence: and
when they have seen this they will have no more doubt
64
concerning the things which you relate to them by my
command. So therefore it is my will that you ask Rat-
leig to put before you two new candles which were
never yet lighted; and taking one in the right hand and
the other in the left go stand before the altar; and when
you have finished telling all the things which I have
bidden thee, tell those who hear them that by this sign
they may believe these things which you have spoken
to be true and ordered by the angel of God, that is, if
the candles in your hands shall be lighted when they are
looking on, without the bringing of fire which the eye
can see."'" — When all this had come to pass, the little
book was written, and brought to me, and by me of-
fered to the King, and also by him received and read
through. So it has appeared right to me to make men-
tion of this little book among the other miracles; for on
the occasion when it was ordered to be written that
marvellous and unprecedented lighting of candles oc-
curred which the Angel who lighted them declared
should be accomplished through the merits of the
blessed Martyrs.
At almost the very time when Ratleig went back
from us to the church of the Martyrs, another little
book was brought us from thence, containing the words
and arguments of a certain demon who called himself
Wiggon. These were uttered by him in the presence of
many witnesses before the altar, near which the holy
ashes of the Martyrs repose, in answer to the questions
of a priest who had read a service of exorcism over one
whom he possessed: and it happened in this manner.
65
There is a manor in the country of Niedgau called Hecg-
stat, belonging to the monastery of Saint Nazarius, from
which a certain girl, of about sixteen years, possessed
by that wandering spirit, was brought by her parents to
the church of the Martyrs. And when she was come be-
fore the tomb containing the holy bodies, and the priest
had read above her head the words of exorcism, after
the proper manner, and thereafter began to question
the demon as to how and when he had entered into her,
he answered the priest not in the barbarous tongue
which was all the girl knew but in the speech of Rome.
And when the priest was struck with wonder and asked
whence came knowledge of the Latin tongue, when the
girl's parents, who were there present, were completely
ignorant of discourse after this manner, the demon an-
swered and said "You have never seen any of my kin."
Then the priest said "Who then art thou and whence,
if these be not thy kinsfolk?"
And the demon said, speaking with the lips of the
girl, " I am an officer and a disciple of Satan, and for a
very long time I was porter of Hell; but now for some
years, with eleven of my comrades, I have ravaged the
kingdom of the Franks. Grain and wine, and all the
other fruits which spring from the earth for the use of
men we plagued and ruined; we killed flocks and herds
with murrain, we let loose plague and pestilence among
men themselves; and all the troubles and the evils
which .they now have long suffered according to their
deserts, have fallen upon them, have been cast upon
them by what we did." And when the priest asked him
66
for what reason a power of this kind had been granted
him, " By reason of the perverseness," he said, " of this
people, and of the manifold sins of those who are set up
to rule over them. For they love profits and not justice,
and they fear man more than God, and they oppress the
poor, they will not listen to widows and orphans crying
out to them for aid, and they do justice to none except
for pay. Besides these there are many and almost num-
berless other sins which are daily committed both by
the people themselves and by their rulers; such as per-
jury, drunkenness, adultery, murder, theft, rapine
which no one forbids, and when they are committed
there is none who punishes them. They that are most in
power serve like slaves for base profits; and they abuse
the higher place, which they received that they might
justly rule their subjects, giving themselves up to pride
and vain glory; hatred and malice they cherish not
against them that are far off but against their neigh-
bours and those with whom they are allied; friend hath
no faith in friend, brother hates brother, and the father
loves not the son. There are few who faithfully and de-
voutly pay tithes, fewer still who give alms; and this
because they deem lost to themselves whatever they
are bidden give to God or to the poor. They do not fear
to have short measures and false weights, against the
command of God; they try to get the better of one an-
other by fraud; they do not blush to bear false witness;
they do not keep Sundays and Feast Days, but then,
just as on other days, they work as their fancy bids
them. By reason of these things and many more which
67 -
God has either bidden men do or forbidden them to do,
and because this people by disobeying His commands
is guilty of contumacy, we have been allowed, nay or-
dered, to do those things among men which I have
named above, one by one, so that they may suffer the
deserts of their faithlessness. For those are faithless and
lying who take no pains to keep the promises they have
made in baptism." All these things the demon spoke in
Latin through the lips of the girl who knew none.
And when the priest began to command that he come
forth from her; "I will come forth," he said, "not by
reason of your command, but by reason of the power of
the Saints, who will not suffer me to stay in her any
longer." With these words he cast the girl down on the
pavement, and made her lie there for a little while, face
down, like one asleep. But a little while after, when he
had betaken himself away, the girl, as if waking from a
slumber, by the power of Christ and the merits of the
blessed Martyrs, rose up sound, and all who were there
saw her and marvelled, and after the demon was cast
out of her she could not speak Latin; so that it is plainly
evident that not she but the demon through her lips
had spoken it. Alas and weladay! To what a pitiful
depth have our times fallen when not good men but evil
spirits are our teachers; and the quickeners of our vices
and the tempters of our crimes warn us for our good.
At about the same time a certain nun, by name
Maretrude, from the country of Wetereiba, had been so
mightily stricken for ten years by the dreadful disease of
palsy that for all that time she could use hardly any
68
part of her body for human needs; and her kinsfolk had
no more hope for her, for they had carried her to every
holy place to which they could manage to go. But
nevertheless when she was brought by them to the
church of the Martyrs, and at the time of the night ser-
vice by the chancel, through the merits and mediation of
those Saints she was given back her longed-for health
without delay, and so fully and perfectly that recover-
ing the strength of all her limbs she who had been borne
thither on a litter returned home on foot. But when she
came near home, in the course of her journey, she was
seized with the same disorder from which she had re-
joiced to be freed. So repenting of her return, she
begged to be taken back to the threshold of the mar-
tyrs. And she was hardly brought back when without
delay she received again the soundness which she had
lost by departing. So she made a vow that she would
never again willingly depart from where honour was
done the bodies of the Saints, and she built herself a lit-
tle cell, so that she could dwell not far from the church,
and thenceforth, religiously devoted to the service of
the Martyrs, she abode there most prayerfully.
It also appears that another woman, not much later,
was freed by the same blessed Martyrs from a very
troublous disorder. This fact is known to have been ac-
complished as follows: In the country of Niedgau there v
is an estate called Urselle which is distant from the
church of the Martyrs by the space of about six leagues.
At this place a certain woman, when she waked from
sleep early and sat up in her bed, and after the manner
of those rousing themselves from slumber stretched her
self to shake off sloth by extending her arms and by fre-
quent yawns, opened her mouth a little wider than she
ought to have done, and the joints of her jaws near the
ears slipping out of place, she gaped and grinned im-
movably; and unable to shut her mouth, and looking
more like a mask than a human being she was afflicted
with the penalty of that imprudent yawn. When she
brought this to the notice of the poor women who lived
on the same estate, they came running in and tried to
help her suffering with herbs and silly incantations.
But this vain and superstitious presumption had no ef-
fect; and whatever unskilled hands did to help or cure
the sufferer rather troubled her and hurt her. There-
upon a brother of that woman's husband came in, and
gave the wholesome advice that she should be taken
without delay to the church of the Martyrs ; saying that
she could be made whole there if she were ever to be
made whole at all. So they began to lead her thither,
mounted on a pack-horse; but when they were come
near the church they made her get down from the pack-
horse and walk on her feet. And when she was come to
the spot where the turret which contained the bells of
the church could be seen, those who were leading her
bade her lift up her eyes and look at it, and she looked,
and saw and without the intervention of any delay re-
covered her soundness of body. Thereupon all together
fell down on the earth, and gave thanks for the mercy
of God in what words of praise they knew, and rising up
made haste into the church; and after they had wor-
70
shipped the most holy Martyrs, and made offerings ac-
cording to their means, they went back, with great re-
joicing, to their own affairs. We saw that same woman
and talked with her; and those things which were
wrought for her we have set down as she herself told
them.
Now I wish to tell what I myself saw on the day of
the nativity of the blessed Martyrs. A certain deaf and
dumb boy, who had come thither three years before,
and had been made porter in the house of the guardian
of the church, was sitting, when the feast day was past
and vespers service ended, close to the door; and sud-
denly rising he went into the church, and to the right of
the altar fell down upon his face. And when the verger,
who was placing a candlestick with lights before the
altar, found him lying there, he took care to tell me at
once. And we, who were then together, went quickly to
the church, and found him lying just as the verger had
reported. And when we bade him rise, he could not be
stirred, being like one overcome by very heavy sleep.
But a little while afterwards he sat up, as if awaking,
and seeing us standing about him he stood up, and to
those who were near him he spoke in Latin. Now there
are certain of our household who say that, about six
months before, when that same boy was asleep at night
in the house of one of our men, he spoke two words in
his sleep, and at that hour recovered his hearing, which
up to that time he had lacked as much as speech. This
they concluded from the fact that after he had awak-
ened from that sleep he was careful to do everything
71
that he was ordered to do by anybody. But what seems
most remarkable in this wonder is that then he under-
stood those who spoke not Latin but the language of
Barbarians; yet when he was made whole he discoursed
not barbarously but in Latin. And he said that he had
seen the blessed Martyrs, and had heard from them
many things which he ought to tell others. But when he
did not tell these things at once, but put them off to be
told on the morrow, they were so destroyed within him
by forgetfulness that he could remember nothing of
what he had heard. And as he knew not his name, I or-
dered that by reason of the prosperous result of the mir-
acle he be called Prosper. And he is alive now, and
keeps the same office he kept before in the household of
the guardian of the church.
Now the day before Prosper recovered his speech, —
that is, on the eve of the feast-day, — a certain youth,
likewise deaf and dumb, came into the church, and
when with gestures of supplication he had implored the
help of the saints he too, by the aid of God, was made
wholly sound of both afflictions. Now as he also, like
the other, had never heard his name, I called him Gott-
schalk. But, after the power of speech was granted him
through the merits of the Saints, he spoke not like
Prosper, but after the manner of his people in a bar-
barous tongue.
Now when certain duties, according to custom, com-
pelled me in the month of December — if I remember
right on the very first day — to go to the court of the
King, I left the abode of the Martyrs, and next day
72
came to the town which in modern time is called Wies-
baden, there having abode for the night. And when,
that we might more comfortably pass through the for-
est which is about that place, we arose earlier than
usual, the servants who went before us with baggage,
set forth. But after they had left the town in which we
tarried, and started on their way, such darkness of
black night was all about them that they could not tell
which way to turn. Besides it was very cold; and the
earth, covered with frost, would not show them their
path. And as the tops of the hills through which they
must travel were covered with clouds they could not
see how far off or near they looked. In addition to this,
a heavy fog fell on the valleys, which rilling their sight
with its thickness checked them when they would have
proceeded on their journey. And when they saw that
they were checked by so many obstacles, and could not
tell what to do, they dismounted from their horses, and
tried to seek by groping the road which they could not
see. But when this helped them little, they mounted the
horses again, deciding that they had better run the risk
of losing their way, of which they were sore afraid, than
make long delay. So going on in the dark a very little
way they came to a cross which had been set up in
memory of the blessed Marcellinus on the road by
which they were to travel. Now the reason why that,
cross was placed there was that, when I was returning I
two years before from the palace, and bearing the relics I
of the blessed Marcellinus, which had then been given
back to me, the inhabitants of the town in which we
73
had just passed the night, had met us at that point;
and in memory of this fact, they had set it up, in rever-
ence to the blessed Martyr as if it were an inscription or
a monument. And when the aforesaid servants, rather
by straying than by finding their way, were come
thither, they took counsel, and there waited for their
fellows who were following; and, lest they should lose
their way, they called them to themselves by the sound
of a horn; and then, when they were all gathered to-
gether, they called on the blessed Martyrs to bring
them aid, and lifting up their voices on high they thrice
chanted the Kyrie eleison.
And when this was done, so great a flash of light sent
from heaven shone over them just as many times that
it equalled the clearness of daylight. And that lightning
gave them such help in pursuing their journey, that,
the fog melting and the darkness broken, they could go
on their way, without any delay of straying though in
the woods and amid hills dark with forests, even until
the rising of the dawn. With the first flash, too, such
warmth came together with the light that they said
they felt as it were the heat of a kindled fire. And by
that blast not only the fog but also the frost which till
then had covered the hills and all the forest was so con-
sumed that when the third flash was past hardly any
trace of the bitter cold remained. These things they
who had seen and experienced told us on the evening of
the same day, after we came to where we were to tarry.
Putting faith in their words, (we gave praise to the
mercy of Almighty God with every act of thanksgiving
74
because through the merits of his saints he had deigned
to succour and to comfort us in all our needs.)
Although all the works which we have known to be
done for the help of mortals through the merits of the
blessed Martyrs are great, and should be attributed to
divine power, the strength of Almighty God is neverthe-
less so openly and clearly evident in the miracle which
I have now ordered written down that no room for
doubt is left but that whatever He wills to do for every
one of His creatures He can most easily bring to pass.
In the country of Niedgau is a village called Suntling,
in which a certain priest, by name Waltbert, had a
church. Afflicted in mind, to the great sorrow of his
kinsfolk, he was brought to the church of the Martyrs.
Three of those with him were his brothers, one a priest
and two laymen; the fourth, a near kinsman, was a
monk of the monastery of Hornbach, in which the
priest himself had been educated from an early age.
And when I asked them whether any help had been
given him by any physician, "As soon," they said, "as
we understood that he was afflicted with this raving
disorder, he was taken by us to the monastery in which
he was brought up. And when the physicians there had
done many things for him according to the cunning of
their art, and could not drive the sickness out of him,
our friends urged us to commit him to the pity of these
Saints: for we believe that they can save him, even as
we have heard many others to have been saved here."
After this, received into the lodging-house, they were
four days with us, taking him daily into the church,
75
and making him lie down before the holy ashes of the
Martyrs. But on the fifth day his brother the priest and
the monk who was come with him, requested that I
would keep him with his two brothers who were lay-
men, until they should come back again; for they said
that they would come back again in three days. I did as
they wished, and confided him to our priest Hiltfried.
And when he had been received by the priest, and had
been taken to the cell in which he lodged himself, to-
ward evening of the same day he was moved more vio-
lently by the madness which possessed him, and snatch-
ing up a knife which chance had put in his raving way
he tried to kill one of his brothers who were taking care
of him; but he avoided death by flight, and told our
men, who were near by, of this access of fury. Then the
priest to whom I had committed the care of him, pro-
posed to me and persuaded me that I should let him be
bound. So bound with iron chains he was put to bed,
and with locked doors was left alone in the cell. His
brothers lay before the door, and watched as carefully
as if he had been strong enough to break his bonds.
Besides, the chains with which he was held bound were
of such sort that while he was in them he could not turn
to right or left, nor lie except flat on his back.
So he went to sleep, and as he himself testifies did not
wake up until the middle of the night. But waking
when the cocks began to crow, he found himself not
only freed from bindings of chains but also delivered
from the affliction of madness under which he had la-
boured; and forthwith bent with all his mind to the ut-
76
terance of the praises of God in psalms and hymns, he
sang them in his overflowing thankfulness so clearly
that he waked all who were sleeping near the cell. Then
getting up he went to the door, and asked his brothers,
who were lying there, to let him come out, for the needs
of nature. But they, thinking this the cunning of a mad-
man, dared not consent; and sending for their host, who
had shut him up there, they begged that he speak with
him. And after he had spoken with him, and by the
good sense of his answers understood him to be of sound
mind, he opened the door and let him go where he
would; and meeting him when he came back, he asked
him what was become of the chains with which he had
been laden. And he answered "The chain with which
you bound me is safe, and if you wish to know where it
is, seek it and you shall find." So having kindled lights
they found it lying before the bed in which they had
made him rest, and arranged in the same manner and
tied with the same knots as it had been when they fas-
tened him with it to that very bed and left him alone in
that very cell. Who can be believed to have done this,
save He who made all things from nothing; and who
can do with the things he has ordained wonders which
can neither be understood by reason nor explained in
the speech of man ? For who can either imagine in his
thoughts or tell in words by what means that priest was
freed from these chains; for it is most certain to us that
there is no one who alone could free himself from knots
of that kind if he had been bound with them as that
priest was when he was shut up alone in that cell ? But
77
those who led him thither, after they came back and
found him whole and in possession of his mind and
memory, went back with him, rejoicing and giving
praise to God, to where they belonged. That this mar-
vel was thus wrought we did not learn from the witness
of any others whatsoever, but, by the will of God we
ourselves knew it, for we were still there; and we write
of it so confidently because we came to know it, as they
say, by ocular evidence. But inasmuch as all the
things which we have determined to have writ-
ten of the wonder-working of the Martyrs
cannot be comprised in these presents,
let this book end here, for what is
left may better start from
a new beginning.
r
o.
' I
MIRACLES WROUGHT IN THE PALACE OF
THE KING BY THESE SAINTS. BLINDNESS,
CRAMPS, PALSY AND FEVERS CURED.S88S)*
IN telling of the signs and wonders which I have
purposed to write down in this book,1 it seems to
me that those should be placed first which, as
they were wrought at the palace, came to the
knowledge not only of the people, but of the King him-
self and his nobles, and, so to speak, of all the court;
and not so much for that reason as because at that time
no other relics than those of the blessed Marcellinus
and Peter were in our little oratory, where these mira-
cles came to pass, so that any cures or wonders known
to have been wrought there belong and should be re-
ferred to them whose relics alone were there. The same
most blessed Martyrs, as we shall see in what follows,
have wrought in the abiding places of other saints
many wonders and miracles, which may not unreason-
ably appear as it were common to them and to the
saints in whose churches they came to pass; principally
on this account — that those who are believed of
equal merit in the sight of God, are not foolishly
thought to work in common when miracles are accom-
plished. But that this was otherwise is proved by the
i. Here begins Book IV of the Surian edition.
79
consideration, which is clearly evident, that no won-
ders had been wrought in these places before the afore-
said relics of the blessed Martyrs had been borne
thither. But now, as we have promised, let us set forth
the miracles which were worked in the palace of which
I have just spoken.
There was a certain youth among the chamberlains
of the King, by nation a Greek, by name Drogo; and
seized by a fever, he suffered, by reason either of the
carelessness of those about him or of the ignorance of
physicians, from long weakness of health, for many
months. And he, after the abbot Hildoin had returned
us the relics of the blessed Marcellinus, as is set forth in
the second book, was counselled in dreams to go to our
oratory, and there to light four candles bought with
money, and to call on Saint Marcellinus, whose head was
declared to be there, to give him help, and to be sure
that if he did so he would very soon be delivered from
the affliction under which he had long laboured. He be-
lieved this admonition, and did what he was bidden do
as soon as he possibly could. And presently made
sound, and recovering the strength of his limbs, he
went home on his own feet. J
There was also in the same place, another young man,
by name Gesjach, of the city of Rheims, among those
who had been bidden come from that city to construct
the buildings of the palace. And he, about half a year
before, in the street where he abode, was seized with so
powerful and great contraction of the sinews that his
feet clove to his buttocks and his knees to his chin. His
80
friends and neighbours, bearing him in their arms, car-
ried him to the aforesaid oratory; and, since they could
not place him otherwise, they laid him down upon his
face, and with great devoutness begged the holy Mar-
tyr that his health should be restored. The day was
Sunday, and the hour of the day when he was brought
thither was the third, and he lay there even until the
ninth hour. And when the service of that same hour was
finished by the clergy, behold there came from the
shrine which contained the holy relics of the blessed
Martyr so great a fragrance of the sweetest yet strange
savour that it filled the whole little cell of the oratory,
and in marvel at it all who were there presently rose up,
and peered at one another with curious looks, to see if
all had perceived it alike. And all at once they saw him
who lay near them as it were pulled by hands holding
him; and his limbs which had been drawn together by
his malady were straightened: and knowing that the
strength of God was there, they lifted up the man and
set him down before the altar. And when he was placed
there they besought the help of God with many tears,
and in the sight of all he who had been borne into the
oratory by the hands of others was made so straight
that he went forth from the oratory on his own feet.
But nevertheless he is even still known to bear in his
body a trace of the suffering which he underwent: for
he has ever after so limped with his left shin and foot
that he has needed a crutch to control his gait. Why he
was not wholly cured, let them say who will. As for me,
I can only surmise that it was needful for his inner
81
health that some trace of his outward trouble should
remain with him.
An old city, distant from the town of Aix-la-Chapelle
by the space of eight leagues, is called Juliers. From the
domains of that city a certain girl, afflicted with a simi-
lar malady and in a similar way, was brought by her
mother and others of her kin to the oratory aforesaid;
and by reason of the crowd of people who by chance
were then gathered there together to hear the solemn
offices of the Mass, they could not carry her in, so they
set her down outside the east window of the oratory,
waiting for a chance when, the gathering of people
being dispersed, they could bear her more easily into
the oratory. But when about the middle of the service
was arrived at, and, the Gospel having been read, the
oblation of the host of our salvation was completed,
they saw her seized with spasms, and a sweat breaking
forth over her whole body, she fell as it were into a
sleep. Concluding, and not in vain, from these tokens
that the power of God was come thither they lifted her
up and set her down on a square slab of stone which lay
near by. And there, in the presence of all who had hur-
riedly come together for the purpose of seeing this
miracle, she recovered, by the help of God, and in the
space of an hour, complete soundness of all her limbs.
Among other lookers-on there were also Jews; of whom
one, by name David, after the completion of this mir-
acle, came quickly running to the window of the cell in
which I then was, and calling me told me of the miracle
which he had seen, giving thanks to God who through
82
His martyrs had deigned to work such great miracles
for the weal of mortals.
There was in the same town a certain blind man of
advanced age, who, as he himself declared, had been
stricken with sudden blindness three years before, and
was in the habit of begging alms among others of the
poor from door to door. While he was asleep in his little
hut he saw in sleep a certain man come to his side and
say that if he would like to see he should go to our ora-
tory, for a doctor was there who could restore light to
one who asked for it. He refused, and holding unwel-
come the light which was offered, replied, "What use
have I for sight, which I have now lost for so long? It is
better for me to lack than to have it. For all listen to a
beggar, and supply those things which are needful; and
it is unseemly that one who can see should beg; and I am
old and feeble and cannot work." Then he who spoke to
him answered, "Go, and do not delay; for whether you
will or no you shall recover sight." He obeyed the com-
mand, and made his way to the oratory, and there
passed the night; and when nothing happened all night
long he went back to his hut. And there he who had be-
fore appeared to him in sleep again appeared, and just
as he had bidden him first, commanded him to go to the
oratory. He did as he was ordered to do, but even then
nothing happened. But warned for a third time he came
again, and when he knelt before the altar to pray he re-
covered his sight. This man, while he was still blind, we
had often seen among others of the poor and infirm
begging in our house: so we asked for no other evidence
83
of his enlightening, because we thought enough for us
the evidence of our own certain consciousness.
Now when the helpful story of these works of power,
and of many others like them, was spread through the
towns and regions thereabout, a certain woman of the
country of the Ripuarians, who had already been a long
time blind, had both longing and faith that she should
recover sight, and so asked to be taken to the aforesaid
oratory. And when she was come there, she remained
in fasting and prayer three whole days and as many
nights. But when, though present there, she felt within
her no sign of the soundness she desired, she was led
back home; and after a few days had passed, having
again conceived no vain hope of receiving light, she
asked to be led back to the holy relics. And when she
was guided thither by a single servant, — for those who
had brought her there before, judging her hope vain
and empty, would not go with her again, — and they
were come to the cemetery of the palace of Aix-la-Cha-
pelle, which is situated on the hill overlooking the city
from the eastern side, at that point, whither he had led
and guided her, she recovered, even as if divine grace
were come thither to meet her, her long-desired sight.
Then, wondering and amazed, she bade the servant
who had guided her to follow her: "Hitherto," she said,
" I have followed where you have gone first and led me,
but now I have no need of your guiding, for I see the
way by which we must go; and by the help of God, I
can discern this town in which are the holy relics to
which I longed to come. So do you look and care only
84
that when we are within the city you lead me straight
to the oratory of the Martyrs." And when she had thus
spoken, he guided her to the oratory, and there she
gave thanks, and she told us of the miracle wrought for
her, and so, restored to sight and rejoicing made her
way back to her own people.
Eschweiler they call a royal manor, distant from the
palace of Aix-la-Chapelle by the space of four leagues,
in which there was a certain man, kept at home and in
great trouble by a long weakness of the bowels; so that
he was despaired of by his family to such a degree that
it seemed as if he could be cured by no means unless by
cautery. A physician was called for this purpose, and a
day was appointed for this profitless burning. Mean-
while it was revealed in sleep to a certain woman, in-
habiting the same place, that he ought not to have re-
course for his cure to a remedy of this kind, which
would do the patient no good, both because he could
hardly bear the pain of it and because it was wholly
needless. On the other hand, if he wished to be made
whole, he should go to the palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, he
should ask for our oratory, and he should have himself
carried into it, and he should not leave it before three
days were finished; by this means he should recover
complete health. When this was told him, he sum-
moned his friends and kinsfolk, and begged that for his
sake they would fulfill the commands of that revela-
tion. And having presently set him on a pack-horse,
they took him to the oratory; and placing him in it, as
had been commanded, they went away, purposing to
85
return after three days were past. And he, left there
through three days and nights, not vainly supplicating
the Lord for the recovery of his health, was so com-
pletely cured that he declared no trace to remain in his
entrails of the pain by which they had for a long time
been vexed. And when, as they had promised, his
friends came back for him, and found him as they had
hoped made whole, he went back home not on the back
of a beast, as he had come, but by the use of his own
feet, amid the great gladness and rejoicing of them all.
There is another royal estate in the Meuse country,
distant by about eight leagues from Aix-la-Chapelle;
the inhabitants call it Gangelt. In this was a certain
woman who had a daughter of some eight years so
weakened by the dreadful disease of paralysis that for a
long time past she could hardly move any one of her
limbs for its appointed purpose. Having heard reports
of the miracles, she conceived in her pious heart a hope
of recovering her daughter's health; and thereupon she
took the pains to carry her in her own arms to the ora-
tory aforesaid. And when she arrived there at that time
of the morning which is the hour of breakfast, and
found none of the clergy at hand, — for a little while
before they had left for the purpose of refreshment, —
she nevertheless went in and set her daughter down
near her on the pavement. Then she herself, lighting a
very small wax taper, which she had brought as an of-
fering, put it on the same pavement in front of [her]
(the child), and bowed herself down with the greatest
reverence to pray before the holy ashes. And when this
86
was done, without the intervention of any delay, the
girl who, without the mother's knowledge, had recov-
ered through divine grace the health and strength of all
her limbs, rose up; and she took up the wax taper which
lay beside her, and stood behind her who was bowed
down. And when her prayer was finished she lifted her
head from the pavement, and saw neither the taper nor
her daughter in the spot where she had placed her, and
she rose up and turning herself the other way she saw,
praising God and full of joy, her daughter standing
close beside her, holding the taper. So when she saw
that no one was there to whom she could report the
wonder that had been wrought, — for besides the poor,
who lay there for the purpose of begging, there was no
one but herself and her daughter within the walls of the
oratory when the miracle was accomplished, — having
fulfilled her vows with an act of thanksgiving, she went
home on foot with her daughter safe and sound.
Now how the fact of this miracle was made known to
us I will briefly tell. Gerward, librarian of the palace, to
whom the care of the works and buildings of the palace
had been committed by the King, was coming back
from Nimuegen, on his way to the palace of Aix-la-
Chapelle. And when he stopped one night at the royal
estate aforesaid he asked his host if he had lately heard
any news from the palace. And he answered and said:
"Nothing is just now so talked of among the courtiers as
the signs and miracles which are wrought in the house
of Eginhard by certain saints whose relics he is said to
have in the oratory of his house; to the worship of
8?
which all our neighbours hurry every day, and whoever
is brought there ill is there cured." — And he began to
tell him about the daughter of that woman, and how
a few days before she had been made whole. — Then
Gerward said, " Go and bring that same woman to me,
so that she may herself tell me what I wish to hear."
The woman came, and clearly set forth all, just as it
had happened. And Gerward, when he came to the
King next day, told him what he had learned of this
miracle from the account of that woman. And the King,
when according to custom I entered and stood before
him, told both me and others who were standing by
what Gerward had reported to him of this miracle,
•\ marvelling and giving praise to divine mercy
\ and power. So it came about that the
\ miracle which had been wrought in
our house without our know-
\ ledge was thus impressively /
made known to us.
7
MIRACLES BROUGHT TO PASS AT VALEN-
CIENNES IN HAINAULT BY THE RELICS OF
THESE SAINTS. LIGHT RESTORED TO TEN
BLIND MEN, OTHER SICK MADE SOUND.
THESE among the miracles of the blessed
Martyrs which were wrought in the palace
are enough to record in the present work. Now
we must come to those wonders which were
accomplished in places to which, at the request of reli-
gious men and by my generosity, relics of those same
Martyrs1 came, and in which even unto this day they
are worshipped with great devoutness. The first of all
to have them by my gift was George, a priest and head of
the monastery of Saint Salvius the Martyr, which is in
the country of Famars, in the city called Valenciennes;
and he sent them to the aforesaid monastery from the
palace at Aix-la-Chapelle by a certain deacon. And
when he, having with him only one companion, came in
the country of Hesbaye to the royal domain which they
call Vise, and dismounted in a field which was near the
town for the purpose of refreshing his beasts, behold
one of the dwellers in the place, bowed down with a
i. This is not to be understood as meaning complete relics of the
martyrs, but rather pieces, that is, fragments, of the same given by
Eginhard to certain churches.
89
hump and his jaws also distended with a great swelling,
— for as he himself said he had long suffered from a
great aching of the teeth, — bearing on his shoulder an
iron pitch-fork, came raging into the same field and
asked in great anger why they were grazing in his field.
Then the deacon who was carrying the relics of the Mar-
tyrs, and was making ready to hang them on the top of
a pole which he had set up for that purpose in that same
place, said, "It is better for you to bow yourself down
before these relics of Saints, which I have here in my
hands, and to pray God that through the merits of
these same Saints He deign to free you from the pain
which you suffer; for the swelling which is to be seen in
your face testifies that there is a great pain in your
mouth." And thereupon the man, casting aside the
pitch-fork which he bore in his hand, threw himself on
his face before the relics, and as the deacon advised him
made prayer to God for his health. And, no long time
having passed, he rose up from his prayer so whole that
neither the swelling remained in his face, nor the pain
in his teeth, nor the hump with which he had been bur-
dened on his back. And thereupon, running quickly as
he could into the village, he called on all his kinsmen
and neighbours to praise God and give thanks to Christ
the Lord. So there came together in the field a great
multitude of people, and a crowd gathered from all the
country thereabouts, to give thanks for him who had
been made whole. And all begged the deacon to tarry
there that night; and he could not deny them, for they
were ready, unless he consented, to hold him there
90
against his will. Then they kept vigil all night long, and
the whole region echoed with the praises of God. But
next day, when the deacon began to start on his way,
that whole concourse of people who were gathered to-
gether accompanied him in his departure with great
reverence; nor would they either stop or turn back until
they were met by others whom the report of this mira-
cle had stirred up, coming to meet them. And in this
manner the holy relics of the Martyrs, by reason of this
miracle, were taken up by the peoples of those parts,
and borne by the guidance of the Lord to the church of
Saint Salvius, whither George aforesaid had sent them.
This miracle, it should be stated, was related to me by
George himself; concerning the others, which are now
to be set forth, I received from him a little book of
which the order and sequence is as follows:
In the fourteenth z year, by the blessing of Christ,
of the Emperor Louis Augustus, when to confirm the
faith of Christian people, as in the beginning of the
lately born church, the Lord deigned to show signs
and wonders in the very palace of the King, George the
priest sought and received from Eginhard the abbot, in
the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle, relics of the blessed Mar-
tyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, whose bodies he
had received from Rome, borne by the hands of his own
men : and placing them in a casket, which he had suit-
ably adorned with gold and jewels, he sent them by the
hands of his deacon, by name Theothard, to the church
i. This appears to be an error of the scribe, and should read the fif-
teenth year of the Emperor Louis.
91
of Saint Salvius the Martyr, which at that time he held
by the beneficence of the King. And when that deacon
came to the royal town which is called Vis6, there ran
up in front of him a hunchback man, so troubled and
tormented by aching of the teeth that for fifteen whole
days he had been able to swallow no food but water
alone. And when urged by the deacon he had bowed
himself down to pray before the relics which he was
bearing and had reverently and beseechingly called on
the Lord Christ to have mercy upon him, through the
intercession of the holy Marcellinus and Peter all dis-
comfort was driven from his body, and he rose up from
prayer sound. And this miracle was wrought on the
thirteenth day before the calends of July. Since this has
been more fully set forth by me above, I have thought
fit to write it down here, close beside the account given
by the aforesaid George.
But when, on the third day, the deacon came with
the relics to Valenciennes, and as he had been bidden
bore them reverently and honorably into the church of
Saint Salvius, a certain youth from the royal domain
which is called Les Estinnes, by name Dominic, who
had already been so troubled for a whole year by the
disorder which the Greeks call spasm that he could
hardly keep his right hand still, but it kept moving
round and round, as if one turned a hand-mill, was so
cured by the merits of the blessed Martyrs, the moment
they entered, that afterwards no inconvenience of that
horrible shaking was evident. And thereafter, on the
fourth day, that is on the feast of the blessed John the
92
Baptist, a certain old woman, by name Gerrada, who
declared that she had been blind for a year, having
called on the blessed Martyrs while the solemnities of
the Mass were celebrating, recovered through their
merits, in the sight of all who were come together, the
light which she had sought by faith. Likewise, on the
feast of Saint Salvius, which falls on the sixth day before
the calends of July, a certain deaf and dumb man, amid
the solemnities of the Mass, was found worthy to re-
ceive, through the request of the Martyrs, both hearing
and speech. On the same day a certain old woman from
the country of Laon, by name Rodeltrude, who for
three years had not seen the light of the sky, recovered
her sight while the same Mass was celebrating. On the
fifth day before the calends of July, while divine service
was in progress, a certain boy of about seven years, by
name Donitian, who had been blind from birth, was
given light through the merits of the blessed Martyrs.
But on the eve of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul,
that is on the fourth day before the calends of July, a
certain little girl, by name Theotbalda, being it was
thought about nine years of age, who for three years
had seen nothing, having taken her place at the hour of
the holy office in the midst of the multitude of people,
helped by the merits of the Martyrs, recovered her lost
sight through the mercy of God. On the same day a cer-
tain man, by name Dado, from the village called Petit-
Pont, who had been bent for six years and could not lift
himself toward the sky, and therefore walked bowed
forward, with short crutches under his armpits for the
93
purpose of holding him up, at the same hour and in the
same place, by the mercy of God and by the merits of
the blessed Martyrs, was made straight and whole.
On the fourth day before the nones of July, a certain
widow, by name Adabruda, who deprived of the light of
of her eyes had seen nothing for four years, having
heard report of the miracles conceived, with no vain
faith, a hope of getting back her sight; and having
taken a staff in her hand, she started alone, without a
guide, for Valenciennes. And when she drew near the
town, it seemed to her that with her right eye she saw
as it were a single ray of sunshine; and thereupon, with
a pure heart, she prayed the pity of God that through
the intercession of His saints he would allow her to see
the church of Saint Salvius. And immediately she was
heard, and through the -mercy of the Lord obtained
without delay what she had desired. On the same day,
too, a certain other woman from the country of Noyon,
by name Ruvitla, blind for five years, recovered, amid
the solemnities of the Mass, by the gift of the Lord
Christ through the merits of His saints, the light which
she had lost.
On the octave of the Apostles, that is on the day be-
fore the nones of July, a certain man, by name Gun-
thard, from the same country, smitten as it were with a
palsy, was led by his kinsfolk to the church of Saint Sal-
vius : and they say that he had already had this trouble
for a year, and that the left part of his body was so very
weak that he could neither lift his hand to his mouth
nor wash himself nor put on his shoes. He, by the mercy
94
of God and the merits of the saints, at the time of
morning service, while it was celebrating, was made
whole.
And likewise another man, by name Hildebon, com-
ing from the monastery which is called the Twins, who
had been blind from childhood and through all his life
had not seen the light of the sky, while the Mass was
celebrating on that same day in that same church, re-
covered through the same saints, by the mercy and
help of the same Lord, his sight, and was found worthy
to see clearly all the things that he had never seen be-
fore. And on the day of the nones of July a certain little
girl, by name Reginlind, who seemed to be not more
than seven years old, and had lacked the light of her
eyes for three years, and among others had taken her
place in the church to hear divine service, by the inter-
cession of the merits of the saints, was given sight in the
presence of the whole multitude. On the fourth day be-
fore the ides of July, a certain blind woman, by name
Alagia, who for almost two years had lacked sight, amid
the holy solemnities of the Mass, at the beseeching
prayers of the saints, was given the light again by our
Lord Jesus Christ. On the same day a certain very old
blind man, from the village of Gheule, by name Ermen-
ward, who had been able to see nothing for fourteen
years, came into the church for the vespers service, and
called on the blessed Martyrs, and immediately, his
blindness melting away, he recovered, by the help of
the Lord his long-desired sight.
On the seventh day before the calends of August, a
95
certain girl who was vexed with an unclean spirit was
brought into the church while the office of the holy
Mass was celebrating, and there through the power of
Christ and the merits of the blessed Martyrs the evil
spirit fled away, and she recovered the soundness of her
mind and the health of her body. These are the miracles
and wonders which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to
work, through the merits of His holy Martyrs Marcel-
linus and Peter, in the city of Valenciennes, for the
good of the human race: and these George aforesaid
took care to send us set down in a little book, and we
have thought well to insert in this work of ours.
This George is a Venetian, who came out of
his own country to the Emperor, and
in the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle
set up with wondrous skill
an organ which in Greek
is called hydraulic.
8.
MIRACLES AT GHENT, IN THE MONASTERY
OF SAINT BAVON, BY THE RELICS OF THESE
SAINTS. EIGHT BLIND MEN RESTORED TO
LIGHT. OTHER SUFFERERS HELPED. <3$£>3$S>
A'THER little book was sent me from the
monastery of Saint Bavon, which is situated
near the Scheldt in the place called Ghent,
where that stream is joined with the river
Lys, by the brothers who there serve God, at whose re-
quest I sent relics of the aforesaid martyrs of Christ to
that monastery; in which these facts are to be found in
the following order:
In the eight hundred and twenty-eighth year after
the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christy relics of the
holy Martyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, came to
the monastery of Saint Bavon, on the fifth day before
the nones of July, the sixth day of the week, which is
written VI. Now three days later, that is the next Sun-
day, which was the third day before the nones of July, a
certain blind girl, by name Hartlinda, from the village
which is called Furnes, whom her father and mother
testified to have lacked the use of her eyes for eight
years, when she was led before the altar on which the
holy relics of the Martyrs were placed, in the presence
of all who were there, by the mercy of the Lord, recov-
97
ered her sight. And eight days later, that is on the fourth
day before the ides of July, another girl likewise blind
was brought there, by name Helrada, from the village
called Machelen: whose parents reported of her that on
the eighth day after she was baptised she was stricken
with a sudden blindness. And she too presently in the
presence of the holy ashes of the Martyrs, recovered —
the Lord giving it back to her — the light she had so
long lost. And three days thereafter, which was the day
before the ides of July, a certain girl came thither, bent
forward, by name Bildrada, from the village of Boderet,
which belongs to the monastery of Saint Vaast. And
when, before the aforesaid relics of the Saints, she had
humbly besought the Lord Christ for the restoration
of her health, in the presence of all who were there she
stood erect, and was held worthy to recover complete
soundness of body in a moment of time.
And afterward, on the twelfth day before the calends
of August, a certain woman, by name Eddela, a serf of
Saint Amand, from the village called Bacerode, who for
many years was said to have lacked the light of her
eyes, happily praying there recovered her sight. On
the same day a certain serf of Saint Bavon, by name
Eberald, from the village of Muller, who also for many
years had not seen the light of heaven, in full sight of
all who were there present, was in the same place pre-
sented with the long-desired rays. And on the same
day also two widows who had been blind for many
years, were there given light: of whom one was by
name Blidwara, from the village of fiessene; and the
other, called Ricberta, is said to have been from the
village of Wormhout.
Twenty-five days later, that is on the feast of the
Assumption of Saint Mary, a certain woman by name
Angaraheld, from the village of Ghoy, in the presence
of the holy relics of the Martyrs, with everybody look-
ing on and marvelling at what had happened, was so
bent down that she could hardly stand up to look at the
heavens. And she next day, that is on the seventeenth
day before the calends of September, in the same
church and witnessed by the same people, was made
straight and restored to her former state, even as if she
had never been bowed down to earth by any trouble of
her body. And later, on the twenty-second day of the
month of September, that is on the tenth before the
calends of October, a certain man of the country of
Texandria, from the village which is named Alphen,
called Liodold, who by reason of weakness in his
left leg and foot held himself up for walking on two
crutches, was there, in the sight of the people, so per-
fectly cured that thereafter in walking about he had
not the least need of crutches.
Now on the fourth day after the accomplishment of
this miracle, that is on the seventh before the calends of
October, a certain deaf and dumb youth, who also had
a twisted left hand, by name Hunwald, from the village
called Corbehem, when he was come before the holy rel-
ics of the Martyrs, and there had prayed humbly, was
made so whole as if he had never been either deaf or
dumb or anywise afflicted by contraction of muscles in
99
the hand. And on the following day, that is on the sixth
before the calends of October, a certain woman, by
name Engilgard, who for many years had been afflicted
with the grievous trouble of palsy, in the same church,
through the merits of the blessed Martyrs, was cured in
the presence of everybody. She was a serf belonging to
the bishopric of Tournia, from the village which is
named Warcoin. Next day, that is the fifth before the
calends of October, a certain other woman, by name
Ramburga, from the village of Bertinghem,very feeble,
because of a similar trouble in the lower part of her
body, recovered, in the sight of all who were there, in
the presence of the same relics of the Saints, the full
strength of her limbs. And by the will of God was made
free in a moment of time from the sickness under which
she was said to have laboured for ten years.
On the same day a certain blind man, by name Ger-
mar, from the village of Schaltheim, which is situated
on the sea-coast of the Frisians near the mouth of the
river Scheldt when he had prayed there for the mercy
of God on the loss which he suffered, and had called on
the blessed Martyrs, was found worthy to receive with
joy the long denied light. And on the fourth day after
this miracle came to pass, by the will of the Lord, that
is on the day before the calends of October, a certain
female serf of Saint Bavon, by name Gundrada, from
the village of Audeghem, who for almost three years
had not seen the sun, when she bowed herself in prayer
before the altar recovered, by the generosity of the
Lord Christ through the merits of His saints, the light
which she had lost.
BY RELICS SENT TO MAESTRICHT, THE
BLIND, THE DEAF, THE DUMB, THE DIS-
TORTED, THE PALSIED ARE CURED. (228©*
AIIRD little book was sent me by the broth-
ers of the monastery of Saint Servais the
Confessor,^ which is situated on the bank of
the river Meuse, in the city which is to-day
called Maestricht, and is distant from the palace of
Aix-la-Chapelle about eight leagues, and is much fre-
quented by a multitude of inhabitants and particularly
of merchants. And the text of this, as I remember, ap-
pears to be composed as follows: The coming of the
holy Martyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, to the
city of Maestricht, took place on the day before the
nones of June. For on that day a vast multitude of
people came out from the city to meet them, having
come together to receive them; and they praised and
blessed God for his limitless and unspeakable mercy in
that He deigned to visit through such mighty patrons a
people which believed and had faith in Him. And when,
with these praises and rejoicings of the spirit, they were
come to the church of the Blessed Servais, and when
there, amid the great thankfulness of all, the solemnities
of the Mass had been celebrated, and everyone had re-
turned to his occupations, the casket in which the holy
ashes had been brought, was placed to the right of the
101
altar in the chancel; and all that day was passed by the
people who dwelt in that city with great happiness and
rejoicing.
And when, for the purpose of celebrating the office of
vespers according to custom, we were come into that
same church, there was present there, among others, a
certain boy, by name Berngisus, whom his friends com-
ing thither from the country of Androz a few days be-
fore had brought with them; and he was blind from
birth. And of a sudden, in the presence of them all, he
fell down on the pavement, and lay there a good while
as if heavy with sleep; and by and by, having opened
his eyes, he gazed, by the gift of the Lord Christ
through the merits of His saints, on the light which he
never saw before. And five days thereafter, that is on
the sixth before the ides of June, a certain man, by sur-
name Hildimar, who was deaf and dumb, received, by
the power of Christ and in the presence of those same
holy relics of the saints, both hearing and likewise
speech.
And on the same day also a certain girl of the house-
hold of Saint Lambert, by name Adallind, who was not
only deaf and dumb, but also blind, and throughout her
whole body was twisted by a shortening of the muscles
in so pitiable a way that her knees touched her breast,
was placed by her kinsfolk beside the holy relics of the
Martyrs; and there, in the presence of all who were
gathered together, she recovered with marvellous
quickness, by the grace of God, both sight and hearing,
speech too and the straightness and strength of all her
IO2
limbs. But next day, that is on the fifth before the ides
of June, when a certain royal serf, by name Berohad,
from the village of Crecy, the right part of whose body
had become through contraction of the muscles wholly
weak and useless, was brought before the aforesaid rel-
ics of the saints, he presently stood up, and without any
delay was restored to the health which he longed for.
And likewise a certain girl from the very town of Maes-
trict, by name Theothild, whose right hand was snarled
and twisted by a similar trouble to such degree that it
was useless for any purpose, was on the same day, be-
fore the same relics of the Saints, in like manner cured.
And when these things were seen, the people come
together in the church began, by reason of their great
and exultant rejoicing, to lift up their voices on high,
singing praises to the Lord in hymns and litanies. And of
a sudden there came in a certain deaf boy, and he stood
in the midst of the crowd of people like one stunned
and thunderstruck. And then, when he was come before
the altar of Saint Saviour, which is placed in the middle
of the church, the blood gushed forth from his nostrils,
and he was given the power of hearing, of which he had
long been deprived. But next day, that is on the fourth
before the ides of June, it seemed to us that the litter
which held the holy ashes of the Martyrs ought to
be lifted higher, to the end that it might be somewhat
above the altar on which it was placed and so more
easily seen by them that flocked thither. And while we
were doing this, and while so doing were singing litan-
ies in praise of God, a certain girl of the household of
103
Saint Servais, whose feet from birth had been twisted by
shortening of the muscles, and whose hands had been
melted into uselessness by lengthening of the same, and
who was dumb as well, and whom a little while before
her kin had brought into the church and placed beside
the litter, was suddenly restored to health; so that at the
same hour she acquired the power of speaking, of walk-
ing and of using her hands perfectly for all her needs.
Now a certain woman of the very city of Maestricht
had a blind maid-servant, by name Adalgard; and she
brought her into the church, and committed her to the
holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, that through their
intercession she might be found worthy to recover her
sight; and there left her. And when, after the service of
vespers was finished, she was standing in that same
church, of a sudden, as though smitten by some one,
she fell down on the pavement; and having writhed
there a good while, at last, to the great astonishment
and wonder of the people standing about her, she rose
up seeing clearly. This happened on the ides of June, at
eventide, just when the shades of night were beginning.
A certain man from the province of Burgundy, of the
territory of Geneva, by name Theotgar, suffering from
the disorder which physicians call by the Greek word
spasm, but which in Latin, by reason of the constant
movement of the limbs, may not unreasonably be
called a trembling^ came into the church, and took his
stand in the midst of the crowd of people who were
gathered together, as is usual of a Sunday, to hear the
solemnities of the Mass. And when, after the reading of
104
the gospel was finished, they were reciting the symbol
of Christian belief, of a sudden he fell shaking down on
the ground; and while divine service went on he lay
there almost without movement and more like one
dead than alive; and when the holy office was over, a
great deal of blood gushed from his nostrils, and amid
the great wonder of the people who were looking on he
stood up whole, and without any trembling at all. This
miracle was wrought on the eighteenth day before the
calends of July, being a Sunday, as is set down above.
But on the fourth day of the week, that is on the
fifteenth before the calends of July, a certain boy, by
name Folchard, from the monastery which is called
Meldert, who was twisted by a pitiable shortening of
muscle in his legs and feet, was cured in the same place,
and in the sight of everybody,- On the eleventh day be-
fore the calends of July, a certain man came to the
church and entered into it with others, whose right
hand together with the arm kept moving around in an
astonishing manner, as if he were grinding a hand-mill
and must do so without stopping. He said that this dis-
quiet had come upon him for the reason that he had
used a mill one Sunday, as is forbidden by the com-
mandment; and that now a whole year had passed
throughout which he had paid this penalty. And when
he came near the holy relics of the Martyrs, and there
besought them full of faith, that movement as of a mill
fell asleep in sudden quiet. This man said that he came
from the monastery of the Scots which is called Fosse,
and that he was named Dothius.
105
On the eve of Saint John the Baptist, which is the
ninth day before the calends of July, a certain man of
condition came to Maestricht to the church of Saint
Servais, who said that he was from the city of Tournai.
And he, as he declared, had been deaf and dumb from
childhood: and taken by his kinsfolk to Saint Sebastian
he there began both to hear and to speak, but imper-
fectly, for his words were hardly understood; and he
too, when others spoke to him, could not disguise the
thinness of his hearing. And when he came thither to
the morning service, he cast himself down before the
holy relics, and fell fast asleep. Not much later, as if
wakened by one shaking him, he asked those standing
near him who had struck him a blow in the mouth. And
when they all answered and said that no one had done so
he stood up: and made whole at the same time he both
heard and spoke perfectly, with no trouble at all.
On the same day, while the holy solemnities of the
Mass were celebrating, a certain woman, by name Ada-
lind, brought two wax candles, for the purpose of mak-
ing light in the church: one of which she gave with her
right hand to a verger, that it might be kindled; but
meanwhile she kept the other in her left hand, as if to
be lighted later from the former. But in a wondrous
manner, when the verger lighted that which had been
given him, that which remained in the woman's hand
was kindled before the eyes of all by divine power.
A monastery of nuns, by name Eike, is situated on
the river Meuse. And there a certain woman conse-
crated to God, by name Saliga, lay, her whole body ex-
106
cept the right arm afflicted with the dreadful disease of
paralysis. To her, in the quiet of the night, a certain
man from among her neighbours appeared to stand be-
side her, and to address her in words like these, as if he
said, "What are you doing?" And when she answered
him that she was only resting in her own bed, he said,
"Have you heard anything about the saints who are
come to Saint Servais's in Maestricht?" And when
she told him that she had heard nothing about them,
"Arise," he said, "and hurry to get thither as fast as
you can; for there you shall recover the strength of all
your limbs." But since, on waking, she took no pains
to do so, she was again advised on the following night,
by the same man and in like manner, to set out for
Maestricht. Yet then, as before, she had no respect for
the voice of warning and its command, and delayed her
start. But on the third night she saw the same man
come up beside her, and ask with a certain severity why
she disdained his advice; and he struck her in the side
with the staff which he then seemed to hold in his hand
and bade her set out speedily for Maestricht. And she
dared not disobey the command of a trinal vision, and
having called together her neighbours and friends she
was carried as she had been bidden to Maestricht, and
set down in the church of Saint Servais, near the holy
ashes of the Martyrs. And after she had there awaited
the coming of her promised health, at last on the fifth
day after she was come thither, to the great wonder of
all she was found worthy to recover full soundness of all
her body.
ivtev 10.
TWO MIRACLES, WROUGHT BY THE INTER-
CESSION OF SAINTS PROTUS AND HYACINTH
AND OF SAINT HERMES, IN THE CHURCH OF
SAINTS MARCELLINUS AND PETERS
THERE remain two very signal miracles,
which I not only believe should not be hidden
by silence, but rather feel sure that the writ-
ing down of them may make the most fitting
end of my fourth volume, which is now in hand. And
although these wonders appear to have been wrought
by the blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter in com-
mon with other saints, — for one of them occurred on
the coming of the relics of Saints Protus and Hyacinth,
and close beside these relics themselves; and the other
certainly had to do with the relics of Saint Hermes, on
his birthday, — nevertheless it seems that they should
chiefly be ascribed to them in whose church they came
to pass, where their most holy bodies lie at rest. But the
authority for these events rests with ourselves, who
were present, and whom the goodness of God permitted
to see them. And so, with no more preface, let us come
to the miracles themselves which are to be told.
Gregory, bishop of the city of Rome, who at one and
the same time succeeded Eugene and Valentine I in the
I. Valentine appears to have died in September, 827, less than a
month after the death of his predecessor, Eugene II.
108
honour of the papacy, desiring to enlarge the church of
Saint Mark, the Evangelist, in which he had been priest,
and to build a monastery hard by it, searched the ceme-
teries and the churches built at greater distance from
the city, to see if he could find there bodies of holy mar-
tyrs : and when he found them took pains to carry them
to the church which he was munificently rebuilding.
Now it happened by chance that at the time when the
tomb of the most blessed Hermes was about to be
opened and his holy body to be taken from thence, one
of our household, who in that same year was come to
Rome for the purpose of prayer, as is the manner of the
penitent, joined, together with other pilgrims, the
crowd gathered in the church of the Martyr. And he,
when he had carefully looked at the proceedings which
were going on, conceived, in all simplicity of heart yet
not without reason, a hope of laying hands on relics of
the Martyr aforesaid; and going to Deusdona the dea-
con, of whom we made frequent mention in our first
book, he besought him with all his might to obtain even
a little bit of them from those who had the place in
charge, and to give it to him that it might be brought
to me. And he, eagerly approving his petitions, prom-
ised that he would do so without delay; and, having
given a fee to the guardians, he received relics not only
of Saint Hermes but of Saints Protus and Hyacinth
also, whose bodies had been placed in the same church.
And these he was at pains to send by a certain member
of his household, whose surname was Sabbatinus, to-
gether with our own man who had persuaded him to do
109
what he had done; but what he could obtain of the
body of the blessed Hermes he himself, coming to us,
brought as a gift of great price. Now when we were told
of the coming to us of the relics of Saints Protus and
Hyacinth, we went out in procession to meet them;
and we took them up, as was fitting, in honourable
manner, and bearing them to the church with hymns
and prayers we set them down, together with the bier
on which they were come, beside the bodies of the
blessed Marcellinus and Peter. And when, next day, a
certain woman from a neighbouring manor, which is
called Baldradestadt, who was possessed of a devil, en-
tered there with other people, the evil spirit began to
rage, and to throw her flat on the pavement, and to
make his malice evident by proclaiming it in the pres-
ence of all. And when he was asked by the priest that
exorcised him who he was, whence he came, and when
and why he had entered into her, he answered each
question, and declared that he was not only a demon
but the most evil of all things living. And when the
priest asked him the cause of so great wickedness, he
answered that he held himself so by reason of ill will.
And when again he asked him if he had ever been in
heaven, he confessed that he had been in heaven and
had been cast down from thence by reason of pride.
And to the same one asking whether he had not seen
Christ the Lord, he said that He had been seen by him
in Hell, at the time when, for the salvation of the hu-
man race, He had deigned to die and to descend thither.
But when it came to the point where he asked him if
no
he knew the names of the Martyrs, whose relics had
been brought to that church the day before, "Their
names," he said, " are very well known to me: for when
they suffered I was standing close by them, and I was
tortured with boundless envy of their eternal glory;
and even here too I suffer from their most troublous
enmity: for they torture me with torment beyond be-
lief, and they are forcing me unwillingly to go forth from
this vessel in which I have long lain hidden." And the
priest said unto him, "When thou comest forth whither
shalt thou go?" And he said, "I shall take the worst of
roads, and shall seek regions far-off and empty." And
after this, when he had told the priest who adjured him
both the time and the manner of his entering into her,
he turned himself to the woman, saying " Before I come
forth from thee, unhappy woman, I will shake and
break thy bones, and I will leave thee all weak and
mindful that I have been with thee." And when she, as
though conscious of her infirmity, began with humble
and submissive voice to implore the aid of the Saints, he
presently, foaming and howling through her own
mouth with vast harshness, commanded her who would
speak to hold her tongue. And it was very wondrous for
us who were there present to see how that foul spirit
spoke through the mouth of that little woman in a man-
ner so different from hers: for she uttered so pure a
quality now of man's voice and again of woman's that
there seemed to be not one person there but two, bit-
terly disputing, and lashing one another in turn with
loud outcries. And in truth there were two voices, quar-
iii
relling with each other according to their divers wills :
the one was the devil's who longed to smash the body
possessed by him, the other was the woman's, who
longed to be made free from the enemy by whom she
was held; and this diversity of wills could clearly and
openly enough be understood from the unlikeness of
their voices and the great difference of the words which
they flung one at the other. Now when according to
custom the office of the heavenly mystery was finished,
and the time came for us to leave the church for the due
care of our bodies, we ordered the woman to be kept
there with the guardians until we should return, having
faith that through the virtue of Christ and the merits of
His Martyrs, the faithless possessor of her would soon
come forth. Nor was our hope unfulfilled. For when,
after eating, we came back to church, we found the
devil cast out of her, and she was safe and sound, and in
possession of all her wits, and lifting up her. voice in the
praises of God. [Now it is clear that this wonder was
wrought on the coming of the relics of the blessed Mar-
tyrs of Christ, Protus and Hyacinth, in such manner as
we have set forth; but that which is ascribed to Saint
Hermes, and in what manner it came about will be
made clear in the narrative now to follow.
Cologne is the metropolis in the territory of the Ri-
puarians, established on the Rhine. And in it was a cer-
tain woman so weakened by a chronic stretching of the
muscles from the loins downward that, denied the use
of her legs and feet, she could not accomplish the office
of walking otherwise than in a sitting posture, with her
112
feet stretched out in front, pushing herself with hands
placed on the ground and in this manner propelling her-
self. And she, having heard of the miracles and wonders
which the Lord had wrought through his holy Martyrs
Marcellinus and Peter for the cure of the sick and the
weak, was seized with a great desire to come to their
church; and since she could not otherwise travel with
any ease,she took passage in the boat of merchants who
were going thither for the feast of those Saints: and she
arrived there on the day of their nativity, and there
abode a good while in the hope of recovering her
health. But when she perceived that her cure was de-
layed, — and in all truth it was delayed, not denied; for
not elsewhere but there, and not then but at another
time, it was to be brought about, — she decided to go
on to Mayence. For the feast of Saint Alban the Martyr
was close at hand, and he has in that city both a church
and a very celebrated monastery. And when she came
thither, and besought the Lord beside the shrine of the
Martyr for the restoration of her health, she saw in
sleep a certain young clerk come close beside her, bear-
ing in his hand new shoes, and bidding that she take
them and put them on her feet: and thereupon she did
so. Then he commanded that shod with these she
should go back to the place whence she was come, and
there await the coming of the physician who beyond
any doubt should cure her. And when she was awake
she put faith in the vision, and went back to the healing
threshold of the holy Martyrs with all the speed she
could; and for two months abiding in that place among
others of the poor, she awaited the fulfilment of what
the vision had promised. Now meanwhile, about the
middle of the month of August, the deacon Deusdona,
of whom we made frequent mention in the first book of
this work, brought us as a great present a single joint of
the finger of the blessed martyr Hermes. And receiving
it, enclosed in a little box, we placed it in the upper part
of the church, above the door by which they enter from
the West. But the woman who, as I have said, was come
thither divinely warned by a vision, and after two
whole months found that none of the promised help had
been vouchsafed her, began to think that she had been
deceived by a vain dream and that she might best go
back to her own country. -And she made bargain with
the traders who should take her back that the next Sun-
day, which was the fifth day before the calends of Sep-
tember and also the day when the anniversary of Saint
Hermes was solemnly to be celebrated, they should
carry her to their boat, to go back to her own parts./
Now when the night had fallen which was undoubtedly
to precede the day thus fixed for her departure, and we,
according to our custom when the night service was
finished, came out to go to bed, and all the others were
issuing from the church, that woman, desiring to go in,
sat herself down on the threshold. And there, in the.
presence of all, overcome by a certain faintness, she
held her tongue for a little while; and then, after a good
deal of blood had run out from all her toe-nails, she
came back to herself and held out her hand to those
about her, and lifted to her feet she began to walk to
114
the tomb of the Martyrs. And when she was come
thither she cast herself down in prayer before the altar,
and there she lay so long that the hymn which the
multitude of them who rejoiced and marvelled sang
most devoutly to the praise of God was finished. And
when it came to an end she rose up sound; but she had
no more wish to go home to her country. Now that
miracle is rightly to be credited to the blessed Hermes,
on whose feast day and beneath whose relics it was
wrought. But nevertheless the most holy Martyrs Mar-
cellinus and Peter may have had their part in the work,
which came to pass in their church; and the woman
who was cured always called on them, throughout all
the time of her pilgrimage, to help her.
These are those of the numberless miracles of the
Saints, either seen by us or reported to us by the truth-
ful account of the faithful, which we have decided to
commit to letters and memory. And I doubt not that
they will be pleasant reading for lovers of Christ and
worshippers of his martyrs; for nothing seems beyond
their power, if the doing of it please Almighty God. But
I hope that unbelievers and they that belittle the glory
of the saints may be induced not to read them at all;
for I doubt not that they would seem fantastic. And so,
perhaps annoyed by the crudity of our style, they might
not be strong enough to avoid blasphemy and envy,
thereby making clear that they hate God and their
neighbour, whom they are bidden love.
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